4.9 The Greater London Archaeology Advisory Service
South London
Consultation on the Environment Agency's Ravensbourne and Marsh Dykes Local Environment Action Plans allowed an opportunity to look more strategically at the archaeology of south-east London. The area straddled three Countryside Character Areas, including the Thames estuary and part of the North Downs. Further definition of the historic landscape character and archaeological potential helped establish criteria for consideration in future reviews of unitary development plan archaeological priority areas and highlighted the diversity of local cultural traditions. This study also demonstrates the potential to develop regionally focused archaeological frameworks through the coordination of plans supporting various local authority and non-governmental agency regulatory functions.
A detailed desk-based study of the Crayford Brickearth has been completed, taking this aspect of the Southern Rivers Project forward as a regional initiative. This has provided, for the first time, a comprehensive landscape context for the in situ Palaeolithic sites identified during late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century brick extraction. Levallois flint working sites are now known to be located either side of a former channel, which dissects the east west chalk ridge overlooking the present course of the Thames and its tributary River Darent. Up to 12m of clay-based fine sediment seal the former land surface and the chalk cliffs that were the source of the flint raw material used in Palaeolithic tool manufacture. This sediment was extracted to supply the former brick industry, yet we now know there are extensive areas where primary deposits survive, even within the base of many of the former quarries, which in most cases have subsequently been landfilled.
Work at Lodge Lane, Croydon and at St Philomena School, Carshalton and adjacent to Queen Marys Hospital, Carshalton has provided further information about Late Bronze settlement along the North Downs dip slope and spring line. Knowledge of the layout and chronology of late prehistoric field systems in the adjoining Wandle Valley has also improved following the plotting of field boundaries and excavation of associated ditches at Beddington Lane, Croydon. A particularly notable discovery was that of 13 sherds of a single vessel identified as an example of the southern British Deverel-Rimbury series of bucket urns. This vessel was unusually large, possessed profuse external and internal stab decoration and was placed on the base of a clay-lined pit, prompting speculation it was in some sense special'.
A watching brief during the laying of new irrigation pipes for Wimbledon Golf Club at Caesar's Camp, Wimbledon recorded a probable Early Iron Age hillfort protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. This exercise enabled the recording of sections across the upper parts of the ramparts and upper fills of the hillfort ditches and also produced information relating to the later, medieval, agricultural use of the land. Stretches of a Roman Road (Stane Street) directly threatened by retail development were partially excavated at High Street, Colliers Wood and in other parts of the site provision was made for the road's preservation in situ. Archaeological work along the route of the Croydon Tramlink has produced a number of new discoveries. An extensive area of late prehistoric settlement, probably Late Bronze Age, was found at Lodge Lane. Features include field boundaries, alongside pits and hearths, the latter associated with discrete circular stake built structures. At Lloyd Park numerous ditches and pits containing large assemblages of Roman ceramics and some animal bone indicate the northern edge of previously unknown rural settlement. At Geoffrey Harris House, the flint foundations of the probable sixteenth-century precursor to the present eighteenth-century house have been recorded.
Construction work along the Thames has continued apace. Work on the widening of the Kingston Bridge and a new houseboat mooring, provided an opportunity to test methods for screening sediments dredged from the river. Previous dredging has left few surviving deposits other than the Thames gravels, but the recovery of a single late prehistoric sherd showed effective screening is possible and commercially practical. The construction of bridge abutments also revealed successive phases of fourteenth- to seventeenth-century river revetments and a jetty dating to the later part of this sequence. The Thames Archaeological Survey continues to document the remains within the foreshore. GLAAS has undertaken a provisional review of the results to date, which has highlighted how this unique historic environment contributes to the diversity of the post-industrial riverside.
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Full-scale excavation at Deptford Power Station provided an opportunity to examine the complete plan of the Trinity House, a charity in aid of decayed seamen' or their widows, which received its Royal Charter in 1514. In addition, development of the docks, from which the East India Company ran its first voyages, were examined in the context of the successive waterfront structures dating from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. A full post-excavation research programme is anticipated, examining the economic, technical, and social context of the maritime community at Deptford from the sixteenth century.
Evaluation work at Upper Lodge, Bushey Park was carried out to inform a Heritage Lottery Application for funding to renovate the water gardens built by Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax in the early eighteenth century. The gardens are depicted in a painting by Jacob Bogdani, but evaluation has also demonstrated the variable survival of archaeological evidence for garden features. In particular the infilled central pond can be defined and other landscaping details are discernible.
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Inner London
South London
North and West London
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