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Hayes Common Earthworks

Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork

Miscellaneous

There are two separate earthwork areas marked on the OS map. One is on the far Western part of the Common, centred on TQ398652. This looks close to circular. The other area is about one kilometre to the East, where two linear earthworks are shown around TQ408652. The western one crosses the road and looks about 400m long (aligned NNE – SSW). The Eastern looks shorter, maybe 250m, and aligned closer to North – South.

‘Prehistoric London’ by Nick Merriman (1990 – ISBN 0112904475) mentions that “…the places where people lived in this early part of the ‘Bronze Age’ are very difficult to find. Within the Greater London area, most sites are limited to isolated pits, which contain pottery, flints and occasionally loomweights, or quernstones for grinding grain. Sometimes pits are clay-lined for storing grain or water. Examples of these settlement areas have been found on Hayes Common near Bromley and at Sipson in Hillingdon, where loomweights attest some of the earliest weaving known in London.” Later on he comments “Sometimes it is possible to find traces of the fields which surrounded these settlements, in which crops were grown or animals grazed. At Hayes Common and near Runnymede, large ditches have been found which probably acted both as property boundaries and as drainage ditches for the fields.
pure joy Posted by pure joy
28th July 2003ce

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