Pages tagged with "Post-Medieval"

England’s Historic Seascapes

admin — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:53:06 +0000

Liverpool Waterfront"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes" - Marcel Proust

England’s Historic Seascapes is a pilot historic landscape characterisation (HLC) project commissioned by English Heritage. The project will develop a methodology for extending existing HLCs into the inter-tidal and marine zone focussing initially on a study area in Liverpool Bay.

Sefton sand dunes

What is Historic Landscape Characterisation?

Historic landscape characterisation is a way of describing and displaying the physical, environmental and human-made changes and components that have made the landscape appear as it does today. It can be used as a heritage management tool, ensuring any changes or impacts on the landscape are appropriate to its historic character. It provides a broader understanding of the heritage of an area by including every part of the landscape by providing the context to individual sites and monuments.

Lydiard Park

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:46:43 +0000

Lydiard Park, just south west of Swindon, is owned by Swindon Borough Council. With the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the support of RWE Innogy, the park is being restored to some of its eighteenth century glory. During summer 2004 Wessex Archaeology undertook the essential investigation work needed to ensure that the restoration is authentic.

But this has been no ordinary excavation! A key part of the project has been the involvement of the local community and over 200 local residents have taken part in the digging of the eighteenth century features in the park.

The archaeology has been of great interest for many of the visitors, walkers and families who regularly visit this lovely park, and the archaeology events which have taken place this summer have been very well attended. There is an exhibition of finds from the excavations in the park’s Visitors’ Centre from July to October.

The excavations were primarily concerned with features of the park known to have been present in the eighteenth century, like the walled garden and the dam wall, but other areas have also been investigated. Find out more about the archaeology by clicking the menu.

download the pdf below to view the online exhibition or visit the following links:

Official Lydiard Park website

Lydiard House and Park visitor information

Medieval burials found at Christchurch Park, Ipswich

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:19:17 +0000

Christchurch Mansion stands on the edge of the site of the medieval monastery

Archaeologists have found a medieval cemetery, probably part of the St Margaret’s church burial ground, at Christchurch Park. The burials were found while a new drainage system for the park renovations was being dug. Archaeologists were watching the pipe trench being dug because it was known that the cemetery, which is at least 500 years old, lay nearby but it was not known exactly where. In order to protect the burials, the route of the pipe has been re-routed across the lawns of the park.

Christchurch Park has medieval origins. A priory, or monastery, once stood close to the site of Christchurch Mansion. The priory, known as the Holy Trinity, was founded about 1177 for monks of the Augustinian order. It was a small but wealth priory and people from the town came there to worship. As Ipswich expanded, the priory became overcrowded and around 1300 the priory built the church of St Margaret for the town folk. The church, enlarged over the generations, continues in use today.

Archaeologists record the exact location of some of the burials using a GPS. Like many monasteries and religious houses in England and Wales, Holy Trinity came to grief in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1536 the king decided to close down hundreds of monasteries, and Holy Trinity and its lands were seized. The site of the priory was sold to a wealth merchant who started building Christchurch Mansion as a private home in 1548.

Archaeologists record the exact location of some of the burials using a GPS.Paul Falcini of Wessex Archaeology said ‘we were keeping a careful on the new trench and as soon as we found what we thought were graves we stopped the mechanical excavator. We excavated just enough to confirm that human remains were present and then we carefully covered over the graves.’ He added ‘the graves lies close together at regular intervals so it seems that this is a cemetery, most likely part of St Margaret’s. The grounds of the Mansion were extended over part of the churchyard in the 16th century.

Sam Pollard, Park Manager for Christchurch Park said ‘Trying to build for the future and protect the past is a delicate balancing act. When we decided to put the new drain under the existing road to try and avoid damaging the lawns of the park, we knew there was a chance we would discover part of the cemetery. Now that we know the size of the cemetery, we can plan to protect it. No one likes to dig up lawns, but this time diverting the line of the new drain was the right thing to do.’

The renovation works are part of a major project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Ipswich Council to improve the town centre oasis of Christchurch Park.

Holywells Park

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:38:19 +0000

The Background

The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded Ipswich Borough Council a project planning grant to pay for the investigations needed before work can begin to restore Holywells Park. Wessex Archaeology has been excavating a number of trial trenches to see if there are old surfaces and structures hidden under the ground which can tell us more about the history of the park.

External links: Heritage Lottery Fund, Ipswich Borough Council Tourism

View an online exhibition of this site by downloading the pdf below

Forbury Gardens

admin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:47:01 +0000

Download the pdf below to view the online Exhibition

Forbury Gardens -

Blenheim Palace Estate

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:41:36 +0000

Blenheim Palace World Heritage Site Management Plan -

Download the pdf below to view the Online Exhibition

Vitro, 60-63 Fenchurch Street, City of London EC3

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:39:01 +0000

Excavations with Fenchurch Street station in the backgroundPost-excavation news

Wessex Archaeology are working for Frogmore Developments Ltd on the archaeological excavation at 60 & 63 Fenchurch Street in the City of London EC3. The site is being redeveloped to provide a prestigious new office building, which can be viewed at http://www.vitro-city.co.uk/

The excavation was completed in August 2002 and removed all archaeological remains on the site prior to erection of the new building.

You can follow the excavation, see the finds and read about the archaeology and what it tells us on this website. Use the following list and the menu above to navigate through this site.

Heathrow Terminal 5

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:19:38 +0000

Holding text

Battersea Manor House

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:05:08 +0000

Battersea overviewBattersea Manor lies on the south bank of the River Thames, 7km south-east of the City of London. Excavations on the former Battersea Flour Mills site revealed part of the medieval manorial estate and the post-medieval manor house dating from the late 16th to early 17th century.

Archaeology at Harlington

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:54:12 +0000

Site location Major development projects in West London, such as Terminal 5 at Heathrow and the recent M25 widening, continue to require that staple of construction - gravel. The sheer scale of these developments and of the gravel quarries themselves continues to change the natural and historic landscape east and west of the M25 - on the border between Greater London and East Berkshire.

The historic settlements, such as Harlington, are now virtually islands between the quarries and modern infrastructure. Over the last five years, Wessex Archaeology has been working at the quarry owned by CEMEX UK LTD. Initial evaluation showed that there were enough archaeological features to warrant a full excavation. The excavation begins with the mechanical removal of topsoil. This reveals the archaeological features beneath. These are then mapped using state of the art laser survey equipment, known as a Total Station. The archaeologists then have an instant plan of the site and can work out the best way to excavate. The resulting excavations revealed that the archaeological features ranged in date from the Neolithic (Stone Age 4000 – 2400 BC) to post-medieval (1500-1799 AD) periods.

The Neolithic (4000 – 2400 BC)

Neolithic Mortlake PotteryNeolithic Worked and Polished Flint The earliest archaeological remains discovered on the site came from the Middle Neolithic. There were several pits. These contained large fragments of a type of Neolithic pottery known as Mortlake Ware. Some also contained worked flint tools, including fragments of polished stone axes. In some cases the pottery and flint appears to have been deliberately placed in these small and often shallow pits, perhaps as part of a ceremony or ritual This apparent pattern in the selection and deposition of these objects in an identical manner is interesting and, conceivably, ceremonial.

The Bronze Age (2400 - 700 BC)

Few features could be certainly dated to this period but it seems likely that a field system dates toExcavating the waterhole this time. From about 1500 BC field systems began to appear all along the Thames Valley and the fields at Harlington may well be part of this pattern.

Waterholes also become more frequent. They were at least 1.5m deep and digging them would have been a sizeable task to undertake, using only antler picks! Like the ditches, they suggest a more permanent level of settlement. The waterhole from this period is the most striking example found during the excavations and contained a large amount of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery, including some decorated finewares.

The feature also produced a large amount of charcoal and grain. This evidence, all of it domestic waste, suggests that although no buildings or dwellings have been found, there must have been some nearby. It may be that any evidence of a settlement lay beneath the M4.

Roman (AD 43 - 410)

Interestingly there were no archaeological remains from the Roman period. This might imply that the site went out of use after the Early Iron Age. The reason for this however remains unclear.

Site plan of Saxon and Medieval features

Early Saxon to Medieval (AD 410 – 1499)

Once again there are clear traces of ancient field systems and waterholes. One of the waterholes contained a large amount of butchered animal bone, so it is likely that food was being prepared nearby. A well was also found, this was smaller than the waterholes, with much steeper sides, but of the same depth. Archaeologists found the first clear evidence of a building. A series of postholes form a roughly rectangular building 9m by 10m in size. It is on the same alignment as the surrounding fields. Although there is no pottery to date the building, environmental sampling produced rye. The rye crop was first introduced to northern Britain in the Roman times, but was not widely grown until the Saxons introduced it as a main crop.

Four graves were also discovered. Because of the soil conditions no bones from the burials survived, but two of the graves contained sets of glass and amber beads.

frontback A special find was the discovery of a Saxon penny. TSaxon glass beadshe coin was issued by King Ælfred between AD 871 and 875. The image on the front is the less common ‘ELFRED REX’, whilst the reverse bears the name of a moneyer called Wine, who struck coins for several of the Saxon kings of the time, and is known to have minted coins in Canterbury. Coins of Ælfred the Great are rare finds.