Newham Museum Archaeology Project Archives

Newham Museum Service, 2000. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000328. How to cite using this DOI

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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/10.5284/1000328
Sample Citation for this DOI

Newham Museum Service (2000) Newham Museum Archaeology Project Archives [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000328

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Site 'R', High Road, Leyton

Overview

Introduction

Newham Museum Service was commissioned by Hunting Gate Project Management Ltd. to undertake an archaeological evaluation of site 'R' in advance of redevelopment. Site 'R' consists of the Essex Builders Merchants hence forth known as the woodstore at 789 High Street, Leyton, a warehouse to the north, an electricity building to the south, and a triangle of land at the Capworth Street corner.

The site is of considerable importance and interest as this was a further opportunity to investigate the development and use of a major medieval road and the settlement along it. Deeply stratified deposits were uncovered at Old Leyton Baths (an area to the north of site 'R') in advance of the new Tesco Store, dating from the late-medieval period to the present day. During the medieval period agriculture was the main activity, but there is sufficient pottery and building material spread over the area to suggest the presence of a substantial medieval building in the near vicinity. This building seems to have been demolished around 1500 AD and the site divided into properties which seem to have survived as property demarcations until the 1930's. Various structures were recorded within these properties including pits, wells, soakaways, buildings and surfaces.

Because the woodstore was a standing 18th century building with, in places, original floor levels, it was likely that at least within this property boundary archaeological stratified deposits might be expected to be preserved, and potentially of a depth and complexity as had been encountered at Old Leyton Baths.

It was therefore decided to confine the evaluation to within the property boundary of the woodstore. The evaluation was carried out on the 10/7/95 and between 24/7/95 and 3/8/95. As a consequence of the evaluation results, and negotiation with the developers, and English Heritage, further archaeological works of a watching brief nature were undertaken over the entire area of site 'R', and a small rescue excavation undertaken within the woodstore. This second phase of work was carried out between the 11/9/95 and 15/9/95.

Summary

The archaeological investigation revealed a sequence of stratified archaeological deposits from the medieval period until the twentieth century. These deposits could be grouped into seven phases of activity, the first of which is the underlying geology across the site. This was found to be a deposition, probably by alluvial action in the Eocene period, of clay.

The next phase saw the earliest evidence for human activity on the site in the form of plough soils across the site and a plough mark seen in Trench 3. This practising of arable agriculture on the site probably occurred during the medieval period because of the quantities of well turned building material. A single piece of Roman tile was found, as compared to no Roman finds from Old Leyton Baths which had a larger finds collection.

By the late-medieval period a new phase of activity took place when arable agriculture, at least on part of the site, ceased and at least one timber framed structure erected. A sill beam slot and a post-hole were seen and recorded in Trench 3. This structure was likely to have had a peg-tile roof, but there was no evidence as to what the buildings function may have been. It could have been part of one of the structural elements to a medieval farm, or it could have been part of medieval residential ribbon development along Leyton High Road, spreading north from Low Leyton.

The medieval building went out of use when it was demolished in the early post-medieval period. This may mark a change in ownership and property divisions and certainly there was a change in land-use across the site during this new phase when some form of horticulture took place. Evidence of rubbish pitting in the central part of the site but not in the northern part may indicate that the property plots which survived until the twentieth century had their origins in this phase. The disposal of domestic refuse may also indicate the presence, in the near vicinity, of an early post-medieval dwelling which has yet to be located. The analysis of the building material recovered from the pitting also suggests the construction of new buildings or the maintenance of standing buildings. Cartographic sources confirm substantial buildings in the locality with market-garden plots laid out in the rear. This intensification of horticultural activity is a pattern of development not unlike what occurred at Old Leyton Baths in the post-medieval period. However archaeological evidence for this building was probably destroyed when Leyton High Road was widened in the late-nineteenth century.

The next phase saw the construction and use of a detached two-storey house, at some time between 1750 and 1777. To the rear of the building a garden area was laid out. The layout of the house was a two-up-two-down roomed affair with an outshot at the rear to accommodate a scullery or pantry on the ground floor, the staircase, and a third bedroom. The living-room would have had the larger fireplace as this was where all the cooking and water heating would have been carried out. The house had five fireplaces heating both ground-floor rooms and all three bedrooms. The fireplaces were integral features to the original structure of the house and are facets of a fairly well-to-do home.

The two main bedrooms on the first storey were fitted out with wood panelled wainscoting (possibly an original feature) presumably adding to the comfort and status of the rooms and the house in general. The built in cupboard space in the main bedrooms may also have been an original feature. In the eighteenth century domestic servants were employed in households of quite modest social standing and the back-bedroom may originally have been for servant accommodation. The house was also provided with a foul-water disposal system in the form of brick lined drains and probably would have had it's own water supply in the from of a well located in the rear garden area.

The area to the north of the house does not appear to have been residentially developed during the eighteenth century but probably continued to be given over to horticultural production. However it may be that the archaeology recorded in this area represents gardens to the rear of structures which can be seen on maps of the locality for this period.

During the nineteenth century phase repairs to the building, notably the floor and the parlour fireplace, occurred. Brick plinths were introduced in the main ground-floor rooms at this time probably to support a timber floor which may have needed replacing or consolidating.

The area north of the house in the nineteenth century was probably built on as population growth in the locality increased the pressure for urban development. Cartographic sources indicate the existence of a row of buildings on the site in this area, perhaps functioning as stables, workshops or even small cottages.

The house continued to be inhabited probably until the twentieth century when it underwent a change of use from a residential property to a retail outlet for DIY/timber products. At the rear of the house a modern wall was built extending the back outshot south to the property dividing wall, squaring-off the building. A second doorway into the rear of the building may have been inserted as part of these changes. The roof was certainly replaced or re-laid with pan-tiles when the modern extension was built.

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