» Home > In the News

Early Neolithic site at a gravel pit near Heathrow

28 April 2013
Archaeology

I've logged this story before, I think, but here it goes again – from a different source (www.sloughobserver.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2013/03/12/87456-horton-q…). The newspaper cutting I have is dated March 15th 2013 where dwhiteway [at] berksmedia [dot] co [dot] uk writes about excavations at Kingsmead Quarry in Stanwell Road, Horton, on the back road loop to Heathrow, missing out blockages on the M25 (always a short cut, especially at rush hour). Four houses were unearthed – unfortunately just their floor plans as the wood has long since rotted away (and various objects that were in and around them). They date back to 3700BC, in what was then the Early Neolithic period (as far as Britain and Ireland was concerned). The site is situated in the valley of the river Colne, a tributary of the Thames, west of London. The mixture of a flat landscape and easily worked soil, a few miles from Windsor in the west, and Staines in the east, was the beginning of a long attachment by farmers to the local landscape. Similar house layouts are known from Ireland, and in some cases the wood has been preserved, and the carpentry techniques etc. More recent archaeology has also been discovered at the site.

Skip to content