After three months exploring the archaeology of Wales, in this column I head east to Surrey. This is a county that I know well from my years leading the county council’s heritage team – and I have recently returned to the area in my role at the National Trust, for which I help to care for sites that include the historic estates of Clandon Park, Hatchlands Park, and Polesden Lacey. The county is one that historically suffers from being overlooked: its proximity, and partial absorption, into Greater London risks obscuring its significance. But I, among others, know its strengths and its secrets, some of which I will share with you here.
Before I begin, two observations: first, I will cover aspects of both the modern and historic county in this column; and, second, I pay special tribute to the Surrey Archaeological Society, which was founded in 1854 and is, as such, one of the oldest archaeological organisations in Britain. Current Archaeology 192 celebrated the Society’s many successes in June 2004, when it was a mere 150 years old, and I am confident it will still be active at its bicentennial in 2054.
A river (and a road) runs through it
It feels apposite, given the popular perception of Surrey as the county of roads and suburbs, that its first serious mention appears in CA 67 and 68 (June and August 1979), reporting on a site destroyed by the expansion of the M25, but first excavated by the Surrey Archaeological Society. At Runnymede Bridge near Egham, a Late Bronze Age site was discovered beneath a playing field later lost to the motorway. CA 67 flagged the site and CA 68 explored it in detail, as the excavations uncovered a riverside settlement rich in finds, including an intact waterfront/wharf complex near the old A30 bridge, reflecting the importance of this crossing-point down the millennia.
