Newham Museum Archaeology Project Archives
Newham Museum Service, 2000. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000328. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Newham Museum Service unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
London Borough of Redbridge
Lynton House
255 - 259 High Road
Ilford, Essex
IG1 1NN
England
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 265
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000328
- How to cite using this DOI
The Abbey Road (BA-AR 88)
[File last modified 17th March 1997]
Site Location: TQ 4393/8405
BA-AR 88 was located along the eastern side of the Abbey Road and its northern limit of excavation abutted London Road. This area of land is part of the conservation area surrounding Barking Abbey. As such it is also part of an area protected as a scheduled ancient monument and planning permissions in this archeaologically important zone are subject to approval by English Heritage.
Landowners
The site is owned by The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.
Site Funding
The site was funded by The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.
Site Recording and Methodology
The Harris Matrix system as developed by the Museum of London Archaeological Service (MoLAS) was used to record the site. Some members of the site team had to be taught how to use this method.
Background
The junction of Abbey Road and London Road, Barking, is close to a new round-about taking traffic onto the new northern ring road around the town. As part of this new road system it was decided to re-turn two-way traffic back into Abbey Road. To smooth traffic flow into the Abbey Road from the new round-about it was decided that Abbey Road should be re-aligned at its junction with London Road.
Prior to the re-alignment an archaeological investigation was conducted by a team from Passmore Edwards Museum (later Newham Museum Service).
The Site
The site began on Wednesday, 15th June and finished on the 5th August, 1988. Post-excavation work began on Friday the 12 August, 1988. This was not completed because the Site Supervisor undertaking this work, Peter Moore, was sent to supervise the site at Tilbury Fort, Essex.
The Trench
The trench measured seventy meters long and approximately ten meters wide
Recording
The recording system used on the site was the modified Harris Matrix single context planning method used by the Museum of London Archaeological Service (MOLAS).
Photographs
There is a photographic Archive comprising black and white contact strips and colour slides.
The Archaeology
Post-Medieval
The northern half of the site had been occupied by terraced housing built sometime in the 19th century until finally demolished in the mid-20th century. In 1971 The London Borough of Barking decided to landscape this area. Removal of the tarmac path and the grass revealed layers dumped during the landscaping and the base of an air-raid shelter belonging to one of the houses. excavation of these deposits produced medieval archaeology attributable to the medieval period.
Medieval
The northern half of the trench revealed a chalk wall footing aligned north-south with, at its southern end, a return to the east which ran into the eastern limit of the excavation. The footing measured approximately three-quarters of a meter wide and twenty meters long. The footing an up a shallow incline rising from the north to the south. Up-standing upon the footing was a wall of ragstone and flint which survived to a height of around one meter in the north to almost nothing in the south as the footing followed the slope upwards. This seems to imply that the wall was levelled possibly as part of a landscaping scheme. The slope up which the wall footing ran was probably originally part of the valley of the River Roding. However, the revetted edge of the River Roding is several hundred yards from this part of the site.
To the south of the wall was evidence for a medieval bread oven and to the south of that were several phases of a pitched tile hearth which had been used to melt lead.
Saxon
During the excavation a one meter wide and four meter long cut, probably dug by a JCB, was found to have been put at right angles to, and completely through the chalk wall footing, close to its southern end. Examination of the north facing section of this re-excavated cut showed a stratigraphic sequence comprising the chalk footing for the wall, the footing construction trench which cut an early medieval pit which in turn cut an earlier ditch. A section was put across the ditch which showed that it was approximately two meters wide and one-and-a-half meters deep. Unfortunately, there were no finds by which it could be dated but its relative stratigraphic position may indicate that it is Saxon. The ditch is aligned in the same direction as the as the perimeter wall of the medieval abbey but is approximately one meter to its west.
There are three problems associated with this ditch. Firstly, the literature on Saxon Abbeys suggests that all such structures were surrounded by a ditch to signify the spiritual separateness of the Church from the rest of the world. The ditch found in this excavation might be evidence for such a curtilage ditch which would have surrounded the Saxon Abbey of AD 666. If this is the curtilage ditch of the Saxon period Abbey it will be the first real evidence for its presence. However, the problem will remain if there was only one Saxon Abbey, and if more than one, to which of them does this ditch belong.
The second problem is that if this is the curtilage ditch of the only, or latest, Saxon Abbey it shows a remarkably accurate correspondence with the perimeter wall of the medieval phase of the Abbey. A mechanism will, therefore, be needed to account for the continuation of this property boundary through the period of the desertion of the Abbey from around AD 850 to AD 950 when, presumably, all records were lost.
The third problem, of course, is that if this explanation of the ditch is not correct, what is it.
To the south of this hearth a line of post holes extended on a slightly south-west alignment for approximately five meters. The post holes contained Roman Tile and Saxon pottery and beside each one was a piece of ragstone rubble. This slightly resembles the "dry-stone wall" building excavated in BAI-85.
The Finds
All finds have been washed and marked and where necessary conservation has been carried out.
| Post-Medieval Finds: | Brick: | Report required |
|---|---|---|
| Tile: | Report required | |
| Glass: | Report required | |
| Pottery: | Report required | |
| Bone: | Report required | |
| Medieval Finds: | Pottery: | Report required |
| Tile: | Report required | |
| Lead: | Report required | |
| Bone: | Report required | |
| Saxon Finds: | Roman Tile: | |
| Saxon: | ||
| Spindle Whorl: | ||
| Samples | No environmental samples survive | |
| Registers | Registers exist for: | Contexts |
| Plans | ||
| Sections | ||
| Photographs | ||
| Small Finds | ||
| There is a Matrix | ||
Interpretation
Removal of the overburden revealed evidence for occupation from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. Under these deposits was found the probable western precinct wall of the Abbey. Through this was a cut at the base of which was found a ditch of a possible Saxon date. The ditch and wall are parallel with the ditch one metre to the west possibly showing continuous property boundaries. To the south of the wall was a hearth, probably constructed in the open air at the dissolution of the monastery and used to melt Abbey lead, for, around the hearth was a large collection of window canes and an ingot of lead.
Removal of the hearth and associated deposits revealed a line of post-holes aligned north/south probably of a Saxon building aligned. This wall was directly in line with the north/south medieval wall. These also indicate continuity of occupation.
