Excavations at Crown Wharf, Dace Road, Tower Hamlets
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BRIDGING THE LEA: EXCAVATIONS AT CROWN WHARF, DACE ROAD, TOWER HAMLETS Angus Stephenson With a contribution by Damian Goodburn SUMMARY After the Romano-British period, a phase of natural alluvial deposition appears to have occurred before post- An excavation in advance of development at Crown medieval industrial activity began on the site. At least Wharf, Dace Road, Tower Hamlets, revealed a sequence one, and possibly two, timber-lined tanks and several of archaeological deposits within a former channel of timber conduits were exposed across the site. One of the the River Lea. A peat layer at the base of the sequence tanks had reused sections of a London ‘Western-type’ has been radio-carbon dated to the Mesolithic period, barge in its lining. The tanks are thought to date from between 8460 and 7340 cal BC. the 18th century and were overlain by brick footings, Above this lay naturally formed deposits of alluvial conduits and made ground. clay. Approximately 40 large oak piles driven into these layers were recorded. Many of these piles showed INTRODUCTION boxed heart conversion and were trimmed to points with axes in typical Roman fashion and four have The excavation at Crown Wharf Ironworks, been radiocarbon-dated to the early Roman period. The Dace Road, in the London Borough of timbers continued beyond the edges of the excavated area Tower Hamlets, London EC3, was conducted to the north and east, but were recorded over distances by the AOC Archaeology Group (site code: of c.7m in both directions. They appear to form roughly DAC03), for CPM Environmental Planning parallel lines across and within a structure running and Design, acting for Pollard Thomas and from SSW to NNE, and some are interpreted as being Edwards, architects, on behalf of London part of the structure of an early Roman bridge. Green Developments Ltd, the developing In the later Roman period the base of the stream client. channel appears to have been consolidated with gravel The site lies on the west side of the River and sand dumped over the timbers. Finds from these Lea as canalised by the River Lea Navigation layers contained 3rd- and 4th-century Roman pottery (Hackney) Cut in the late 18th century. It is and ceramic building material. This gravel dumping bounded on the east by the River Lea, on the may have formed a causeway through the marshy north by the Swan Wharf warehouses and ground in the later Roman period at a time when river Dace Road, on the west by the warehouses of levels were known to have fallen. Two large post-pits, Percy Dalton’s Company, and on the south cut through these gravels 5.60m apart, may have been by the raised 19th-century Northern Outfall part of a gateway structure built to control local access. Sewer (Fig 1). The site is located within an The final phase of Roman activity identified on the Archaeological Priority Area as defined in site comprised a group of smaller stakes across the line the London Borough of Tower Hamlets of the two large posts; this was possibly a fence-line Unitary Development Plan. closing off access to the area from this direction. In order to comply with planning condit- 39 N Stratford Hackney Rail Depot Wick BR South A12 Hackney Site Victoria Park A106 Lefevre Stratford Walk sewer Old Ford Road 1:20000 0 500m B119 Roman Road Wick Lane 000 000 SMEED ROAD 37 37 5 5 Works Warehouse DACE ROAD Hackney Cut T2 River Lee Navigation Works 537000 T4 T3 Fig 4 T5 Sewer 0 50m 1:1000 Fig 1. Site location Fig 1: Site Location Bridging the Lea: Excavations at Crown Wharf, Dace Road, Tower Hamlets 41 ions, five evaluation trenches, 2m wide and part of it or in the run-up to the Roman 10m long, were to be dug in locations which invasion. It has been conjectured, however, avoided previous investigation trenches and that the major Roman road from Silchester boreholes, and which would be affected by the to Colchester (which ran along Old Street foundations of the proposed development. and through Bethnal Green, close to the These trenches were excavated in reverse north side of modern Roman Road) may numerical order to facilitate machine access have had Iron Age antecedents (Black 1977), and after inspection of the first three trenches and there is limited evidence for Iron Age opened, it was agreed that Trenches 1 and occupation of the general area. 2 should be replaced with a single trench The evidence for activity during the 4m square at the base (Trench 2). The Roman period, however, is incontestable numbering on the trench location plan (Fig and extensive. The first signs that there may 1) is therefore in accordance with the site have been Roman occupation in the area records. During the excavation of Trench 5 were supplied by chance finds, usually in the by mechanical excavator, substantial timbers form of coins and burials, and more recently were encountered and the strategy was through controlled excavation. The first of revised so that an extended trench was dug these were concentrated in an area to the as shown in Fig 1. south of the present site. It has long been suggested that there might GEOLOGICAL CONTEXT be substantial remains of the main Roman road between London and Colchester to be Crown Wharf Ironworks is on the floodplain found (eg RCHM 1928) but actual physical of the River Lea, close to the western edge evidence was only found in 1969 (Sheldon of the alluvial tract comprising deposits of 1971), after which it was confirmed on several sand, silt and clay (Branch et al 2005, 1). subsequent sites (eg Sheldon 1972). The most The floodplain here is c.1.6km in width and comprehensively recorded sighting of this is flanked on both sides by discontinuous road was made during the excavations by Pre- remnants of a low terrace, now regarded as Construct Archaeology (PCA) during 1995— equivalent to the Kempton Park Terrace of 1996 at Lefevre Walk, approximately 400m to the River Thames. The bedrock beneath the the south-west of the present site (Brown et valley floor is the Lower Tertiary London al forthcoming). The full width of the road Clay or, in places, sediments of the Lower including the two side ditches was approx- Tertiary Lambeth Group (Woolwich and imately 26m. The construction of the road Reading Beds). apparently began within a few years of the Claudian invasion and it appears to have been ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND in use throughout most of the Roman period, often with modifications to one or more of the There has been little evidence found of land- three tracks. The boundary ditches defining use in the immediate vicinity of the site before the road zone appear to have been recut very the Roman period. A Palaeolithic axe and late in the Roman period and evidence of an unretouched flint flake were recovered local occupation and roadside activities was from Victoria Park (GLSMR 080060) and a found continuing at least until the end of the Mesolithic tranchet axe was found nearby 4th and possibly into the 5th century. (GLSMR 080080), but these were apparently The exact nature of the settlement isolated finds. The Neolithic and Bronze Age around Old Ford continues to be somewhat are also sparsely represented, with no evidence enigmatic and the evidence will be reviewed of land being exploited to any great extent in a forthcoming monograph (Brown et al in this area, although evidence of prehistoric forthcoming). For present purposes it may occupation of Bronze Age date was found suffice to say that the settlement, if such it during the Lefevre Walk excavations of the is, has produced large quantities of Roman 1990s (Brown et al forthcoming). pottery, coins, burials, ditches, pits and The central area of London is not believed animal bones, particularly of cattle, all in to have held any major political importance fairly close proximity to each other, if not of during the Iron Age, either in the earlier the same historical date. 42 Angus Stephenson The nature of the crossing-point for the area is thus effectively an island within two Roman road over the Lea has never been narrower areas of marshy land beside the proved. The name Old Ford is of (late) Saxon river channels. It is therefore suggested that origin and does not imply that the Roman the Roman road made use of this to reduce crossing-point also consisted of a ford. The the bridging or fording distances and made river probably comprised a series of braided a slight adjustment of the route’s alignment channels at this date and one might think near the top of the hill. that it would be at least inconvenient to have It was hypothesized for some time that the a long ford in the middle of a strategically Roman road actually crossed the western important road. That said, although the stream(s) via a ford a short distance to the actual road has been seen at several points south. Reginald Smith reported in 1910 both east and west of the Lea, there has that a section of herringbone pavement had never been any observation of any timber been found during dredging operations structure for a bridge connecting the known in the Lea between Iceland and Bundock road alignments at Old Ford on the west side Wharves (Smith 1910; GLSMR 0815171) and of the Lea and Stratford on the east. suggested that this pavement formed part of The natural topography of the area, the solid bed of the ford across the river.