Animal burials at Carshalton

A series of 2,000 year old animal burials have been found at Carshalton, London Borough of Sutton.

The burials, which were placed in pits, were discovered in an excavation being done before Stanley Park High School moves from its current location to a new site on the former Queen Mary’s Hospital at Orchard Hill. The pits belonged to a farm that was lived in before the Roman conquest in AD 43 and which continued to be occupied for a few generations afterwards. At this time people lived in round houses which had conical thatched roofs.

The burial of animals in pits is well known in Iron Age Britain and is part of a tradition of making offerings to the gods of the underworld. The pits were probably originally dug to store grain through the winter before sown in the spring. When the pits passed out of use the farmers buried valuable things in the pits before filling them in. At Carshalton the animals, which were probably sacrificed, include horses.

As well as the animal burials, Bronze Age remains have also been found. Small gullies, perhaps field boundaries, and what may be droveways for cattle may be associated with the nearby Queen Mary’s fort. The circular fort dates to the Late Bronze Age and 2,800 years ago it was one of the most important sites in the south. It was discovered when the hospital, which was a children’s hospital, was built at the beginning of the 20th century.

The excavation is the latest in a series to be undertaken in recent years. As the hospital was gradually decommissioned over the last decade, archaeological works took place before redevelopment. Archaeologists also made thorough surveys of the hospital, carefully recording the buildings before they were demolished.

Related articles and reports

Some of our previous work close to this site has been published in the article "Excavations within and close to the Late Bronze Age Enclosure at the former Queen Mary’s Hospital Carshalton" by Jan Groves and Julie Lovell in London Archaeologist (Volume 10 No. 1 Summer 2002 pp 13-19), and is available online from the Archaeology Data Service.

A technical report for an archaeological evaluation consisting of fifteen trial trenches conducted on the site of the former hospital in August 2008, is also available.