MOLA Research Repository
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Knole revealed: archaeology and discovery at a great country house
No full textOver the past decade, Knole has undertaken the biggest conservation project in the National Trust, supported by a generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. In order to conserve the internationally significant collections housed at the property, major work has been carried out on the fabric and environment of this Jacobean treasure-house. The ambitious project has meant that, for the first time, the team has been able to explore and better understand the largest country house in England. This book shares the discoveries made through detailed archaeological recording and conservation at Knole. For more information about Knole visit: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/knole
The Prittlewell princely burial: excavations at Priory Crescent, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, 2003
No full textThis internationally important, late 6th-century AD princely burial was discovered in 2003 at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, within an existing early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Detailed research, scientific analyses and investigative conservation since have produced exciting new information, enabling the reconstruction of the large wooden chamber grave and the coffin of a man buried with small gold crosses, suggesting that he was a Christian. The lavishly furnished chamber included an astonishing array of grave goods – some still hanging on the chamber walls – indicating that he was of the highest status and that the East Saxon kingdom where he lived had contacts with Kent, Merovingian Francia and the Christian Mediterranean world. This research was funded by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Historic England
Plumstead Portal (Crossrail XSW11)
No full textThis archive describes the archaeological evaluation and watching brief work carried out at the Plumstead Portal site by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). The North Woolwich portal is located within the existing railway corridor of the former North London Line (NLL), between Factory Road and Albert Road, in the London Borough of Newham, National Grid Reference 542700 180000. All fieldwork was conducted between 11/04/12 and 09/06/14 and supervised by Portia Askew (MOLA Supervisor), Virgil Yendell (MOLA Senior Geoarchaeologist) and Jason Stewart (MOLA Geoarchaeologist), and included the following: The two evaluation trenches showed natural sands and gravels overlain by peats and alluvial clays. The surface of the Pleistocene\Early Holocene deposits indicated a series of braided river channels within a low-lying area on the western margins of a main channel. A borehole survey showed this channel to be over 200m wide and c.3m deep. This feature would have formed a major part of the floodplain landscape from the Early Holocene and probably became a major drainage feature when the other Holocene channels to the west became abandoned. It is possible that the channel forms an abandoned arm of a former course of the Great Breach Dyke, which existed from the Early Holocene period into the Bronze Age. A Mesolithic land surface was identified with rising sea levels leading to widespread peat formation by the early Neolithic into the Bronze Age, Within the peat deposits were worked timbers which may have formed parts of a structure, possibly a trackway constructed to access or traverse the wetlands. The overlying alluvial silts and clays are likely to be of Iron Age, medieval and historic date representing an inundation of the floodplain. The upper 1.20m comprised dumps which represent making up and levelling of the site prior to the construction of the railway and associated buildings in the vicinity. The foundations of a chimney of the adjacent Listed power station were also recorded. Three window samples afforded opportunities to sample the alluvial sequence above Shepperton Pleistocene Thames gravel. A variable sequence was recorded across the site. The sequence within the windows samples on the site shows gravels and sands overlain by clays and sands then peats and sealed by alluvial clays. The elevation of the surface of the Pleistocene/Early Holocene confirms the previous deposit model of a series of braided river channels (LZ3) within a low lying area of the floodplain and separated or fringed by channel bars to later wetlands (LZ2). The northern, eastern and western extent of the channel has been refined by the variously sourced borehole and trench data. The channel is still estimated to be more than 200m wide and up c 3m deep. This feature formed a major part of the floodplain landscape from the Early Holocene, and probably became a major route of drainage and transport. It is possible that the channel forms an abandoned arm of a former course of the Great Breach Dyke, which existed from the Early Holocene into the Bronze Age period
Tottenham Court Road (Crossrail TCG09)
No full textThe Tottenham Court Road archive includes data from both field evaluation and building recording. A group of non-Listed buildings located to the south of the Astoria Theatre were recorded in December 2009 prior to demolition. The earliest building was formally a 19th-century brick-built warehouse (constructed 1877-85 by R L Roumieu and A Aitchison, completed by R A Roumieu) belonging to the Crosse and Blackwell Company who produced pickles and sauces in a factory in Soho Square. This building, 12 Sutton Row, is known to have been linked by a walkway over the street to the Astoria to the north, itself formerly a warehouse and part of the food factory. Its appearance had been much altered; the original Gothic arched loops and windows were replaced and the whole fa�ade onto Charing Cross Road re-rendered, although the proportions of the original fa�ade remained as did a turret with a spire in the NE corner of the building. Crosse and Blackwell left the Soho area in the 1920s and the warehouse was converted to showrooms and offices in 1925. It formerly extended further to the SW. The other buildings included one fronting Charing Cross Road that was built as a dance school in 1905, with retail units on the ground floor. The third building was built on the site of the demolished portion of the Crosse and Blackwell warehouse complex. The buildings on the site formed an entire block, whilst the 2nd and 3rd buildings were linked together in a recent phase of refurbishment to form 12 Goslett Yard. Eight evaluation trenches were excavated between July 2009 and February 2010. These revealed no sign of natural brickearth, the quarrying of which may have resulted in such widespread truncation. Trenches to the south revealed a water-lain deposit which may have been a pre-17th-century land surface, overlain by dumped layers containing material dated 1650-1700. Trenches in the SW and northern parts of the site revealed 17th-century structural remains consistent with the first development of Bow Road (now Goslett Yard) in the 1670s. The northern trench revealed 18th-19th-century additions, while a trench to the east had a large subsurface vaulted chamber of probable 18th-century date. However, it was filled - almost to the roof - with late 19th/early 20th-century pot and glass associated with Crosse and Blackwell's occupation of the site. A trench in the NW corner of the site revealed a timber warehouse floor overlain by a similar deposit of this material. A trench in the NE corner exposed an 19th/20th-century brick structure whose function and extent could not be determined within the confines of the trench
Prehistoric ploughing and post-medieval occupation at 7-9 Holland Street, Bankside, Southwark
No full textIn the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age the Holland Street site occupied a Thames flood plain eyot surrounded by tidal channels. It was fertile, well-drained, farmed land and fieldwork recovered ard marks, cut features, pottery and evidence of on-site flint working. In the later prehistoric period, the eyot became inundated owing to rising river levels and was gradually buried beneath alluvial clay. Medieval ditches indicate repeated efforts to drain and stabilise land that was at least periodically flooded. These ditches provide botanical and invertebrate indicators of local environmental history and development. As occupation spread southwards from Bankside, the site was fully reclaimed and buildings were constructed in the late 17th century. A boundary ditch or sewer, eventually lined with reused boat timbers, was backfilled around the turn of the 17th/18th century and produced a rich assemblage of household artefacts. Later periods were represented by a series of wells and cesspits that provide a wealth of information on domestic occupation, the local tavern trade and industrial processes carried out in the area in the 18th and 19th centuries, including pottery manufacture and glass working
The Anglo-Saxon princely burial at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea
No full textThis fully illustrated account of the princely burial at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, summarises the results of intensive research, studying the excavated evidence from the intact and lavishly furnished burial chamber. The man who was buried there at the end of the 6th century AD was evidently a Christian but accompanied by an astonishing array of grave goods. Using a range of techniques and a team of over 40 experts, this internationally important discovery has revealed much about the man and the East Saxon kingdom where he lived, and its contacts with Kent, Francia and the Christian Mediterranean. This publication was funded by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. Objects from the burial chamber are on display at Southend Central Museum from May 2019; explore the chamber for yourself at www.prittlewellprincelyburial.org. The detailed research findings are published in The Prittlewell princely burial: excavations at Priory Crescent, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, 2003 (MOLA Monograph Series 73, 2019)
Service Diversion North of Woolwich Portal, Albert Road, Factory Road (Crossrail XSV11)
No full textA general watching brief was undertaken by MOLA at the North Woolwich Portal worksite which consisted of utilities diversions centred around Albert Road and Factory Road. This work was undertaken as part of a wider programme of assessment to quantify the archaeological implications of railway development proposals along the Crossrail route. The North Woolwich portal site lies within an Archaeological Priority Area. There are no scheduled monuments or listed buildings within the site. Underlying the tarmac surface, modern make-up varied in depth from 0.70m to 2.5m below ground level. Generally, trenches excavated to a depth of 2.0m and deeper revealed alluvial soils under modern made ground and tarmac. No archaeological remains were exposed within the shallow sequences. A minerogenic alluvium and peat sequence was recorded beneath modern made ground and tarmac in the deeper trenches which were excavated to a depth of c3.0-4.0m below ground level. The potential for palaeoenvironmental and topographic evidence within the alluvium and peat sequence was moderate to high. However, fieldwork has demonstrated that little archaeology remains within the deeper alluvial sequences. Timbers preserved within the peat deposits were of no archaeological significance, representing driftwood preserved within the marginal wetland. No archaeological structures or associated features indicative of human occupation were observed. At the western end of Factory road, by the Tate and Lyle Sugar Factory, a series of levelling and dump deposits were revealed within the upper made ground to a maximum depth of 2.0m below ground level. These are likely to represent the foundations for the construction of the North London line railway established here in 1847. Natural geology was not exposed. Four trial trenches and a targeted watching brief on the eastern half of the portal enabled recording of the alluvial sequence above the natural Pleistocene Thames gravels. A meandering river of potentially early Holocene date, interspersed with higher sand and gravel floodplain on which Mesolithic activity took place. Flint scatters were observed in three trenches indicating that the shoreline environment was used by people from this period onwards. By the time of the Mesolithic\Neolithic transition, peat had formed above the sand and gravel before rising sea levels in the Roman or later periods inundated the area to deposit alluvium in an estuarine floodplain. The results of the three evaluation boreholes when used to update previous deposit modelling broadly confirm anticipated findings. High areas of Pleistocene gravels and early Holocene sand form dry land islands with a low lying channel floodplain. These dry island areas have the potential for Mesolithic activity. Channel routes migrated and silted up in these deeper channel areas during the early Holocene. Subsequently, river levels continued to rise over the Late Mesolithic to Bronze Age, resulting in transgression and regression episodes, which waterlogged these drier island areas allowing for dense wetland vegetation to develop. As further inundation occurred, thick clay alluvial deposits formed, levelling out the terrain, with any former depressions in the flood plain area silting up. Woodland became increasingly waterlogged and died off, and the landscape would have become much more open. Because of the potential for Mesolithic archaeology, related to hunter-gatherer-fisher activities centred on the gravel island and exploiting the nearby resource rich wetland of the channel marginal zones, and for associated deep organic sequences preserving significant palaeoenvironmental data concerning the development of the River Thames in east London, the results from North Woolwich Portal are assessed as being of regional significance
Ham and Wick Sewer Protection (Crossrail XTH12)
No full textMonitoring of works for two sewer diversion shafts revealed only truncated natural London Clay(in the Wick sewer access chamber, near the cutting for the Blackwall Tunnel approach road and truncated natural gravels(in the Ham sewer access chamber west of Wick Lane. No archaeological remains were observed on either site and modern material and services sealed the truncated natural deposits
Moorgate Shaft, 91-109 Moorgate (Crossrail XSP10)
No full textSeveral watching briefs and evaluations took place at Moorgate Shaft under the sitecode XSP10. The work was commissioned by Crossrail and carried out by MOLA