diff --git a/components/files/constrainedfilestream.cpp b/components/files/constrainedfilestream.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..404fddfcbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/components/files/constrainedfilestream.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+#include "constrainedfilestream.hpp"
+
+#include <streambuf>
+
+#include "lowlevelfile.hpp"
+
+namespace Files
+{
+
+    class ConstrainedFileStreamBuf : public std::streambuf
+    {
+        // somewhat arbitrary though 64KB buffers didn't seem to improve performance any
+        static const size_t sBufferSize = 4096;
+
+        size_t mOrigin;
+        size_t mSize;
+
+        LowLevelFile mFile;
+
+        char mBuffer[sBufferSize];
+
+    public:
+        ConstrainedFileStreamBuf(const std::string &fname, size_t start, size_t length)
+        {
+            mFile.open (fname.c_str ());
+            mSize  = length != 0xFFFFFFFF ? length : mFile.size () - start;
+
+            if (start != 0)
+                mFile.seek(start);
+
+            mOrigin = start;
+        }
+
+        virtual int_type underflow()
+        {
+            if(gptr() == egptr())
+            {
+                // Read in the next chunk of data, and set the read pointers on success
+                size_t got = mFile.read(mBuffer, sBufferSize);
+                // Failure will throw exception in LowLevelFile
+                /*if(got != -1) */
+                setg(&mBuffer[0], &mBuffer[0], mBuffer+got);
+            }
+            if(gptr() == egptr())
+                return traits_type::eof();
+
+            return traits_type::to_int_type(*gptr());
+        }
+
+        virtual pos_type seekoff(off_type offset, std::ios_base::seekdir whence, std::ios_base::openmode mode)
+        {
+            if((mode&std::ios_base::out) || !(mode&std::ios_base::in))
+                return traits_type::eof();
+
+            // new file position, relative to mOrigin
+            size_t newPos;
+            switch (whence)
+            {
+                case std::ios_base::beg:
+                    newPos = offset;
+                    break;
+                case std::ios_base::cur:
+                    newPos = (mFile.tell() - mOrigin) + offset;
+                    break;
+                case std::ios_base::end:
+                    newPos = mSize + offset;
+                    break;
+                default:
+                    return traits_type::eof();
+            }
+            mFile.seek(mOrigin+newPos);
+
+            // EOF handled by exception in LowLevelFile
+
+            // Clear read pointers so underflow() gets called on the next read attempt.
+            setg(0, 0, 0);
+
+            return newPos;
+        }
+
+        virtual pos_type seekpos(pos_type pos, std::ios_base::openmode mode)
+        {
+            if((mode&std::ios_base::out) || !(mode&std::ios_base::in))
+                return traits_type::eof();
+
+            if(pos >= (int)mSize)
+                return traits_type::eof();
+            mFile.seek(mOrigin + pos);
+
+            // Clear read pointers so underflow() gets called on the next read attempt.
+            setg(0, 0, 0);
+            return pos;
+        }
+
+    };
+
+    ConstrainedFileStream::ConstrainedFileStream(const char *filename, size_t start, size_t length)
+        : std::istream(new ConstrainedFileStreamBuf(filename, start, length))
+    {
+
+    }
+
+    ConstrainedFileStream::~ConstrainedFileStream()
+    {
+        delete rdbuf();
+    }
+}
diff --git a/components/files/constrainedfilestream.hpp b/components/files/constrainedfilestream.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..10fe223bc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/components/files/constrainedfilestream.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#ifndef OPENMW_CONSTRAINEDFILESTREAM_H
+#define OPENMW_CONSTRAINEDFILESTREAM_H
+
+#include <istream>
+
+namespace Files
+{
+
+/// A file stream constrained to a specific region in the file, specified by the 'start' and 'length' parameters.
+class ConstrainedFileStream : public std::istream
+{
+public:
+    ConstrainedFileStream(const char *filename,
+                          size_t start=0, size_t length=0xFFFFFFFF);
+    virtual ~ConstrainedFileStream();
+};
+
+}
+
+#endif