Monument record 0155200000 - WINDMILL FIELD, HITCHAM

FINDS OF MANY PERIODS & PARTIALLY EXCAVATED SETTLEMENT SITE ALL FROM WINDMILL HILL/FIELD OR WIN HILL (B1-11,B13).
OS CARDS ONLY SOURCE TO LOCATE ALL ABOVE FINDS IN SAME AREA, THOUGH SAXON FINDS FIRMLY LOCATED HERE. LOCATION OF THE FIELD (AT NGR) ACCORDS WITH MAP OF 1770 (COPY, FILED)(B8-9).




(SU 9217 8119) Pit dwellings (NR) (site of) (B14).

During excavations by the GWR at Hitcham for an extension of the Railway c 1890 "I had the opportunity to witness the removal of several circles, containing food vessels, drinking cups and cinerary urns, bones of various domestic animals such as the ox, sheep, pig etc - broken pottery on which were rudely formed patterns …. In one was a fragment of a polished axe. In the same field, called Windmill Field, I obtained the fine neolithic axe, with three others, polished - it is 8 3/4" x 2 3/4" chipped all round; also a small polished celt ….." (B15).

A sword and shield boss from a Saxon burial in Windmill Field, are in the British Museum (B2).

Baynes, who was responsible for the OS siting, noted that in 1730 a windmill stood on the site of the station master's house know as Winhill (B16).

Pit dwellings were still in fashion when Crawford first published this site but the finds and descriptions suggest the ring ditches of ploughed out barrows with an A/S Secondary and stone axes as casual lost objects.
The only confirmation of the finds is mention of 3 drinking cups in the BM from this site, one ornamented with 22 lines of dotted ornament (VCH Bucks 1, 1905, 182-3) and mention of a food vessel or drinking cup (plain) with slightly expanding mouth from Maidenhead in Reading Museum. (PSA 21, 1907, 313 OA Shrubsole - quoted as sub ref for this site) (B17).

Three beakers from Win Hill, Hitcham Corpus Nos 42, 43 and 44. In British Museums (Acc Nos 94.12-10,42-44). Group: FN, AOC and E (B18).

Formerly a gravel pit, the area is now occupied by housing. No further finds are known to have been made. (B19)

NRHE Insert 1999 (B20).