Monument record 0146500000 - HEDSOR WHARF

FLOORING OF OAK & BEECH TIMBER & BRUSHWOOD FOUND 2.6M DOWN DURING DIGGING FOR CESSPOOL IN 1894, & EXCAV IN 1895. FLOOR SUPPORTED ON PILES. ?ROMAN POT (B1, B10-12).
POOL DUG OUT 1969 ON SITE & PILES RECOVERED (B2).
POT ALL POST-ROMAN: PILES PROB MED (B1-4).
DOC SOURCE OF C13 MENTIONS PILES PUT IN RIVER (B5).
Review of evidence (B13).



(SU 90318607) Pile Dwelling (NR) (Site Of) (B15).

A flooring of rough timber and brushwood was uncovered in 1894, at a depth of 8' 6" when digging a cesspool for the Wharf House, Hedsor. The site is 70 yards from the Thames in an orchard bordered on its SW side by a stream known as 'Blessings Ditch' which runs between the rivers Wye and Thames. The floor was of 4" oak supported by oaken and beech piles. Finds included a socketed iron spear head (with two rivet holes on each side) and animal bones.
Further excavations in 1895, immediately N and NE of the cesspool, produced Roman and also probably Celtic sherds animal bones and fragments of childs skull; also a small iron handbell and part of a small horse shoe. This latter site is some 20 yards E of 'Blessings Ditch' and close to the public footpath which divides the orchard from the Wharf House garden (B1).

The site of the main excavation, as pointed out by Mrs Badcock, who has made local enquiries during the tenancy of the property, exactly coincided with that given in Authy 2, surveyed and sited at SU90338609 (B16).

The Hedsor so-called 'Pile-dwellings' may have originated in late Iron Age times [former interpretation], but the account of the sites does not permit a definite classification (B17).

Pottery, in Aylesbury Museum, from pile-dwellings on opposite bank of the river (Thames) at Hedsor, all of which appear to be post-Roman (from illus certainly medieval) (B3).

A crude but original excavation plan held by Bucks Co Museum supports the siting of Auth 3, and proves the published OS 6" siting to be incorrect. The location description of Auth 1 places the secondary excavations in area SU 9035 8610.
Some of the 'piles', c2-31b of animal bones (including; horse, pig, deer, ox and sheep) and c31bs of pottery are also held by the museum. Inspection of the pottery (18a) confirmed all of it as Md.
According to Mr C Gowing, Bucks County Museum Curator, who visited the site, and who has examined the finds, the alleged pile dwelling is probably the remains of a Md wharf.
(Excavation site) surveyed at 1:2500. (B18)