The Hitchen, Peasemore, Berkshire An Archaeological Evaluation

An archaeological evaluation of the above site was carried out an 6-7 December 1993 by OAU. Five trenches were excavated amounting approx 2% sample of the site, which lies towards the Mell Green end of the village. The trenches showed evidence of agricultural usage, including a substantial buildup of hill wash deposits at the lower end (SW corner). Pottery recovered from these levels suggest the deposits had formed since the late Saxon period. Higher up the site the cultivated horizon was progressively thinner, and similarly the clay beneath it, so that the chalk was exposed in the floor of the trenches.

Interestingly the chalk subsoil seemed to have been exploited in history, because an infilled pit near the present entry to the fields had evidently been a quarry for this material, which could have been used for marling.

It is suggested that settlement on this site was limited to in the middle ages by the roadside pond and its outflow stream.