Facts about Staines-upon-Thames
General Info
Staines-upon-Thames is a town on the left bank of the River Thames in Surrey, England, in the borough of Spelthorne. At or near the Roman settlement of Pontibus, it became Stanes and then Staines. Its borough is in the historic county of Middlesex and its two precursor districts were transferred to Surrey County Council in 1965.
History
A neolithic causewayed camp has been found at the south of Yeoveney on Staines Moor. This had later prehistoric, Roman, and Saxon occupation. At the site of Majestic House excavations in 2013 revealed evidence of intermittent human activity over many centuries. Residual flint artefacts of Mesolithic and Neolithic date, and a small number of Neolithic/Bronze Age features including postholes, were found. The most significant prehistoric evidence was the remains of a ring ditch of that era, a monument type rarely recorded locally. A small Iron Age artefact assemblage was found, as was evidence for drainage ditches from those Mesolithic/Neolithic times. Drainage and boundary ditches formed much of the evidence for later activity on the site, which is east of the later centre of the town but close to the line of the Roman road. Roman occupation debris and agricultural features of 2nd–3rd century AD date were found, and there was a suggestion of continuity of occupation into the 4th century AD. There was no evidence for Saxon or early medieval activities, but the remains of later medieval rectilinear buildings, a well and ditches were found. Ellis (2013) draws a map of this site at the heart of a town island, rather a perennially non-marshy, rounded (penannular) zone that has five archaeological sites.
