The watching brief excavations were undertaken over an extended period across several months and comprised of excavating the footings of a new dwelling and service trenches. The foundation footings covered a general area of approximately 50m x 4m. They were excavated to a maximum depth of 1.65m and a width of 0.65m. Service trenches were excavated to the depth required by the client for the placement of drainage pipes. The watching brief aimed to identify the presence or absence of significant archaeological remains, with a particular focus on prehistoric, Roman and medieval remains that may have been associated with known Roman and medieval landscape activity and previously identified prehistoric features just south of the site. During the course of the archaeological observations, a single ditch and re-cut were observed. A sherd of pottery dating to the early Saxon period and animal bone were recovered from these features. Whilst the previous watching brief undertaken at the adjacent property of Willow Dene only recovered Iron Age pottery from the ditch, the presence of Saxon pottery in the lower fill at the Thames Mead site, indicates that the ditch may well date to a later period. A series of archaeological deposits were also recorded; however these did not produce any archaeological remains and therefore cannot be dated at present. No other archaeological features or deposits relating to any other period were uncovered during the watching brief excavations.
R Tranter (Sun,) studied this question.