Archaeological landscapes of east London: six multi-period sites excavated in advance of gravel quarrying in the London Borough of Havering: Overview

Archaeological landscapes of east London: six multi-period sites excavated in advance of gravel quarrying in the London Borough of Havering

Museum of London Archaeology, 2013. https://doi.org/10.5284/1020237. How to cite using this DOI

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Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:
`https://doi.org/10.5284/1020237`
Sample Citation for this DOI

Museum of London Archaeology (2013) Archaeological landscapes of east London: six multi-period sites excavated in advance of gravel quarrying in the London Borough of Havering [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1020237

This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.

Primary contact

David Bowsher
Director of Research
Museum of London Archaeology
Mortimer Wheeler House
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London
N1 7ED
UK
Tel: 020 7410 2285

Send e-mail enquiry

Resource identifiers

ADS Collection: 1120
ALSF Project Number: 3276
DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1020237
How to cite using this DOI

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1020237

Sample Citation for this DOI

Museum of London Archaeology (2013) Archaeological landscapes of east London: six multi-period sites excavated in advance of gravel quarrying in the London Borough of Havering [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1020237

Overview

Six multi-period archaeological sites investigated in advance of gravel extraction in the London Borough of Havering, between 1963 and 1997, form the basis of a landscape history of the locality. Significant monuments include an Early Neolithic ring ditch. The Bronze Age and Iron Age were periods of woodland clearance followed by intensive landscape utilization and settlement. Two fortified enclosures date from the period of the Roman conquest. A number of Roman farmsteads were occupied until the late 4th century; some of these sites were also inhabited during the Early Saxon period. Significant medieval remains included a farmstead and a manorial enclosure.

The project was carried out by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) administered by English Heritage.

Howell, I J, Swift, D, Watson, B, with Cotton, J, and Greenwood P, 2011, Archaeological landscapes of east London: six multi-period sites excavated in advance of gravel quarrying in the London Borough of Havering, Monograph Series 54.
Greenwood, P, Perring, D, and Rowsome P, 2006, From Ice Age to Essex: a history of the people and landscape of East London MOLA.
http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/Publications/

Contents of the digital archive

The full paper and digital archives and finds for seven of the sites:
Great Sunnings Farm (UP-GS83)
Manor Farm (UP-MF83)
Whitehall Wood (UP-WW82 & 84)
Warren Farm (RO-WF88)
Moor Hall Farm (R-MHF 77 & 79)
Hunt's Hill Farm (UP-HH89)
Great Arnolds Field (R-126)
are publicly accessible in the archive of the Museum of London, and can be consulted by prior arrangement with the Archive Manager at the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC), Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED.

The full paper archives and finds for the other two sites: Uphall Camp, Ilford (IL-UC83/87) Fairlop Quarry, Redbridge IG-HR93/96 and FLQ97 are held at the Redbridge Museum

The post-excavation project was not designed with digital dissemination in mind; indeed the various sites were not originally intended to be published as a single monograph. However, the published report and important parts of the digital archive are being made available through ADS to ensure continued access for researchers, particularly those not based in London.

In 2002 the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) was introduced to provide funds to tackle a wide range of problems affected by the extraction of aggregates and the 'Understanding the east London gravels project', as it became known, was one of a relatively small number of ALSF round one-funded projects approved that was primarily concerned with the assessment of 'backlog' archives. Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) produced assessments for nine site archives held by the Passmore Edwards Museum/Newham Museum Service collections (Hill et al. 2004). This work produced two reports: part 1 - the assessments - and part 2 - an updated project design. English Heritage comments on the assessments and, more specifically, the project design resulted in three of the sites being dropped. The resulting approved project design (Rowsome 2005) proposed a focused programme of analysis and publication, allied with a popular publication (Greenwood et al. 2006).

Documents

All documents have been deposited as PDF/A-1b files.

Environmental reports (animal bone, botanical remains, carbon 14 dating, human remains, worked wood and timber)
Finds reports (building material, flint, pottery, registered finds)
Landuse reports for each site
Post-excavation assessment (part 1) and updated project design (part 2) (Hill et al. 2004), Part 1 deposited in multiple parts (a-j) by site code

Site plans

AutoCAD DWG and DXF files for each site
PDF/A-1b layout of each DXF site plan

Databases

Most data tables were originally recorded in the MOLA Oracle relational database. These tables have been deposited as tab-delimited Unicode (.TAB) tables, and disseminated by the ADS as Comma Separated Values. Any data conventions and relations have been designated on the accompanying metadata and deposited spreadsheet convention documentation.

Indices of archaeological association, including context details and relationships
Environmental data tables (animal bone, botanical remains, ecofacts from processed samples)
Finds data tables (building material, flint, pottery, querns, registered finds)
GIS shape files
Matrices (Text files for UP-HH89 areas of excavation and a .PDF file for UP-GS83 site)

Newham Museums Archaeology Service

The digital archive of the former Newham Museums Archaeology Service (over 180 sites) is currently held by Digital Preservation Europe under their Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), also some Newham Museums Archaeology Service digital data are currently held by Archaeology Data Service

The digital research archive, including copies of specialist reports for all nine sites which were assessed, is lodged with Archaeology Data Service. MOLA publications employ standard codes for ceramics of all periods; these codes were developed by the Museum of London (MOL, formerly known as MoL) for recording purposes. A fabric number system is used to record building materials (tile and brick); these numbers relate to detailed fabric descriptions. Pottery is recorded using codes (alphabetic or a combination of alphabetic and numeric) for fabrics, forms and decoration. Detailed descriptions of the building material fabrics and complete lists of the pottery codes, their expansions and date ranges are available from the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC), Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED, as part of the research archive and are also posted on the LAARC and MOLA pages of the MOL website: www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk. Table 18 lists the Saxon pottery fabric codes used in this report.

The finds, environmental material, photographs and all primary site records for all six analysed sites are held by the Newham Museum Services c/o (Collections Officer) Heritage and Archives, Adults, Community and Leisure Directorate, London Borough of Newham, 31 Stock Street, Plaistow, London E13 OBY (tel: 020 8472 4785). The digital archive of the former Newham Museums Archaeology Service (over 180 sites) is currently held by Digital Preservation Europe under their Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), also some Newham Museums Archaeology Service digital data are currently held by Archaeology Data Service (ADS).

This publication reports on research based on six sites, excavated between 1963 and 1997, in the London Borough of Havering (formerly part of Essex). All the fieldwork was carried out in advance of gravel extraction and it was the proximity of these various investigations which determined the extent of the study area (Fig 1; Table 1). These six archaeological sites were excavated by a variety of bodies and, while interim reports were issued, none proceeded to full publication.

Project background

Before the 1970s, archaeological responses to development in north-east London were often small-scale, and many important sites were destroyed without adequate record. In 1973 the Passmore Edwards Museum (PEM) became the body responsible to the Department of the Environment (DoE) for rescue archaeology in north-east London. The area of London covered by PEM consisted of the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. Consequently grants were paid for excavation but not for post-excavation work, which it was generally assumed could be completed within the museum's own resources. In 1983 a Greater London Council initiative saw the museum's participation in the Greater London Archaeological Service, which gave some grants for post-excavation work. These were used principally for analytical work but 'stratigraphic' work was usually allocated to museum curatorial staff, who had other duties, so post-excavation work tended to be carried out on a piecemeal basis.

The consequences of haphazard post-excavation funding were apparent, and in 1990 the English Heritage London post-excavation review, coordinated by Gill Andrews, highlighted to the Ancient Monuments Advisory Committee a number of sites requiring further work. Groupings of these sites were also outlined for thematic assessment and publication, and one of these groupings forms the basis of the current publication. In 2002 the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) was introduced to provide funds to tackle a wide range of problems affected by the extraction of aggregates and the 'Understanding the east London gravels project', as it became known, was one of a relatively small number of ALSF round one-funded projects approved that was primarily concerned with the assessment of 'backlog' archives. Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) produced assessments for nine site archives held by the Passmore Edwards Museum/Newham Museum Service collections (Hill et al. 2004). This work produced two reports: part 1 - the assessments - and part 2 - an updated project design. English Heritage comments on the assessments and, more specifically, the project design resulted in three of the sites being dropped (Chapter 7.1). It recommended further work should concentrate on a publication whose extent should be both geographically and intellectually defined. Such an approach would enable the ALSF to agree to further support for the project. The resulting approved project design (Rowsome 2005) proposed a focused programme of analysis and publication, allied with a popular publication (Greenwood et al. 2006). Aspects of the project are also available via: http://www.molas.org.uk/projects/ELG/elgReportFst.htm

Letter prefix	Site name	Dates of excavation	Excavation bodies	Original site codes	Land use nos	Parish and NGR (site centre)
A	Hunt's Hill Farm	September 1990-May 1997	Passmore Edwards Museum; Newham Museums Archaeological Services; Essex County Council	UP-HH89	100s	Upminster 556500 183020
B	Moor Hall Farm	evaluation 1977; autumn 1979-spring 1981	Passmore Edwards Museum	R-MHF77; R-MHF79	200s	Rainham 554500 182000
C	Great Arnold's Field	1963	D D A Simpson and I Smith on behalf of the Ministry of Public Building and Works	R-126	300s	Rainham 554180 181500
D	Whitehall Wood	1982-3	Passmore Edwards Museum	UP-WW82	400s	Upminster 557070 182530
E	Great Sunnings Farm	1983	Passmore Edwards Museum	UP-GS83	500s	Upminster 556700 184470
F	Manor Farm	summer 1983; winter 1984	Passmore Edwards Museum	UP-MF83	600s	Upminster 557770 184490

Archaeological landscapes of east London: six multi-period sites excavated in advance of gravel quarrying in the London Borough of Havering

Location

World region

British Isles and Ireland

British Isles country

England

English region

South East

County

GREATER LONDON

District

HAVERING

Place

Great Sunnings Farm

Place

Manor Farm

Place

Whitehall Wood

Place

Warren Farm

Place

Moor Hall Farm

Place

Hunt's Hill Farm

Place

Great Arnolds Field

TGN

World, Europe, United Kingdom, England, Greater London, Havering (borough) [7018919]

Grid reference

OSGB

554180 181500

OSGB

554500 182000

OSGB

556500 183020

OSGB

556700 184470

OSGB

557070 182530

OSGB

557770 184490

Grid reference

Latitude longitude
bounding box

	51.5598611156
0.2109413238		0.2800940276
	51.5058730361

Subject