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 Manor House, Chingford
(CF CH 88)
[File last modified 17th March 1997]
Site Summary
Site Location TQ 3635/9245
The manor is situated in the River Lea valley to the S.E of the Girling Reservoir and is bounded on the west by the River Lea Flood Relief Diversion Channel, to the north by the Lower Hall lane, in the east by house gardens and by Hollywood Road and in the south by factories.
Landowners
The land for the development was bought by Tarmac Homes (Southern) Ltd.
Funding
The site was funded by Tarmac Homes.
Background
The original name for the Manor House was Chingford St. Pauls. As the name implies, the manor lies in the Parish of Chingford and was owned by the Canons of St.Paul's Cathedral. The latest Manor house, built in the 19th century, was demolished in the 1940's and the moat backfilled. Factories were then built upon this site, one producing cork for use in submarine production. In 1987 these factories were in turn demolished and the land sold. The southern half of the site was developed as a car repair shop whilst the northern half was bought by Tarmac Homes (South)Ltd and planning permission granted to build a number of terraces of flats. The land Tarmac Homes intended to re-develop comprised the northern half of the moated area and land to the north of the moat.
Tarmac Homes were given permission to build before the Planning Department realised the importance of the area. They were alerted to the danger of the imminent destruction of an important area by The Curator of the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow.
There was no evidence of the manor or its moat on the ground. The company had undertaken a borehole survey of the site which had not indicated the presence of any moats. However, the position of the Manor and the Moats were plotted on an Ordnance Survey Pathfinder Series map and it was possible to measure in the position of the moats. A JCB was taken to the site and it then very quickly discovered the wide deep moats filled with a fairly loose wet black fill.
Tarmac Homes were on the point of signing a contract with a firm of builders to construct the flats on ordinary brick footings. Finding the moats at this stage gave them the opportunity to redesign the footing to be built on piles and thereby avoid signing a contract which would have cost them a lot of money in down time whilst the footings were re-designed and re-costed. So grateful were the company that they funded the archaeological investigation.
Reasons for excavating the site
- The V.C.H. states that a number of mesolithic and neolithic implements
and Iron Age and Roman coins and potsherds were found mainly during the
excavation for the William Girling Reservoir. Furthermore the V.C.H. defines
the name Chingford as "ford of the dwellers by the stumps". It is implied
that these stumps were the remains of crannogs. Evidence for a crannog
was found during the excavations of the Higham Hill Reservoir located to
the south of the site.
It would be useful to establish how the findings of the excavation relate to the plans produced from the leases. - "Chingford Hall" by Septimus Barry, reports that the Manor of Chingford
St.Paul was given to the Canons of St.Paul's by Edward the Confessor. Two
leases of respectively 1265 and 1480 describe the Manor's buildings and
their location within and without the moat. H.E.Jean Le Patourel produced
plans of the position of these buildings based upon these leases.
It would be useful to establish how the findings of the excavation relate to the plans produced from the leases.
Trenches
Four trenches measuring between 20m - 30m long and 10m wide were opened. One of these trenches was in the building line within the moat, two lay in building lines to the north of the moat whilst the fourth was positioned to the north of the moat to determine the nature of the entrance to the land enclosed by the moat.
Recording
The site recording system was based upon the modified Harris Matrix single context planning method operated by the Museum of London Archaeological Service (MOLAS). A grid of 5m squares was established on the site and features within these grids were planned at a scale of 1:20. Several trenches were opened simultaneously so each had its own context register with a distinctly different sequence of context numbers.
Archaeology
Pre-Historic
The trenches to the north of the moat located evidence for occupation in the pre-middle Iron Age. This inlcuded two creamations in cremation urns. Both the cremations and the pots had been disturbed and were incomplete.
Medieval
The trench within the moated area revealed a number of overlapping pitched tile hearths most of which contained a quantity of burnt grain. There was no evidence of structures.
The Finds
The finds ranged in date from Pre-historic to the late medieval.
| Pre-Historic Finds: | Pottery | Report required |
|---|---|---|
| Cremated Bone | Report required | |
| Flint | Report required | |
| Medieval: | Pottery | Report required |
| Brick | Report required | |
| Tile | Report required | |
| Small-finds | Report required |
All the finds, except those of iron, are in good condition.
All these finds have been conserved and there is a register of those which have been X-rayed.
| Registers
Registers exist for: |
Context Sheets |
|---|---|
| Plans | |
| Finds | |
| Sections | |
| Photographs | |
| Small Finds | |
| Matrix |
Interpretation
Land clearing for the construction of the Factories erected during WWII had probably removed a lot of archaeological material. Apart from the extensive moats little except the hearths survived in this part of the site from the medieval moated manor house and it was therefore, impossible to establish any correlation between the information contained in the leases and that from the archaeology. It is possible that there had been a series of moats and that the manor house lies further to the south under the new factories.
It would be useful to compare how the pre-historic material relates to that of the 'crannog' material found before WWII.
