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Chess Valley Archaeological and Historical Society

PICTURE (TOP):
Workers at
Marlow Brewery
around 1900.
  • Excavations at the former Wethereds brewery site in Marlow

ABOVE: An overall view of the former Wethereds brewery site, looking towards Marlow High Street from the west. BELOW RIGHT: A drawing of am 18th- century pottery tankard found on the site.

In 1996 an archaeological excavation at the former Wethereds brewery site in Marlow produced the first archaeological evidence for medieval Marlow and the development of the High Street. However the notes of this excavation were not written up into a formal report, but remained in the County Museum archive for 20 years – until two members of the Chess Valley society, Marion Wells and Jill Hender, picked up the notes and wrote up the results.

Five late nineteenth century brick-lined pits were revealed by the excavation which may have been associated with the brewery, originally established by Thomas Wethered in 1758. But far more interesting was the evidence of a timber-framed building, possibly of 13th-century date, close to the High Street. At the rear of the building were numerous pits, a possible well and an oven, dug between the late 11th and 14th/15th centuries.

A chalk-built cellar, probably constructed in the 17th or early 18th century, may have been inserted beneath the surviving medieval building, or, alternatively, it may have been part of a different structure constructed after the medieval building's demolition.
  • Who we are:
  • The society researches the past of Chesham, Amersham and the surrounding Chiltern region. We also carry out archaeological fieldwork.
  • For more information see our website.
  • Our activities:
  • Because of the Covid-19 epidemic our talks will be presented on-line, using the Zoom application, for the foreseeable future. The next talk in our programme will be 'Charles Dawson: Piltdown and his other hoaxes', on Friday 20 November. To register for this talk please email birgittathwaites@gmail.com.
  • Some small-scale archaeological fieldwork will also be planned – for example excavating test pits and carrying out resistivity and photogrammetry surveys – and documentary research will continue.
  • The talk in October was titled 'Unfinished business' and focused on three excavations which had been carried out in south Buckinghamshire, but for which only notes exist, with no full report. A group of our members is using these unpublished excavation notes, from the county archive, to develop full reports for publication.
  • Our recent publications:
  • A ROMANO-BRITISH SETTLEMENT AT SARRATT BOTTOM, by Yvonne Edwards, Marion Wells and John Gover, and THE 1996 EXCAVATION OF WETHERED'S BREWERY SITE IN MARLOW (see left) were both published as articles in Records of Buckinghamshire volume 60 in May 2020. Three more articles – on excavations at Whelpley Hill, at Brill and on Mesolithic finds on the route of the M25 – will appear in a future volume.
  • Go to Records of Bucks to order a copy.
  • Enquiries about the society:
  • For general enquiries please email our Secretary at jim@west-net.co.uk.
    For membership enquiries please email Sue Barton at bartonsue@hotmail.com.

Thanks to Jim West at CVAHS for providing content for this page.