| Abstract: |
Report on archaeological excavations carried out between 1992 and 1997 at Westminster, taking into account investigations that took place in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The report is presented in an integrated fashion with all the strands of evidence brought together to enable a more complete understanding of the site. Survey work has established the location of the standing buildings and the works of previous archaeologists and antiquaries. The work of the palaeoenvironmental project, published fully elsewhere, is summarised. One on the principal objectives was to provide a geological, topographical and environmental framework for Thorney Island and its development. The earliest activity dates to the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods; flint assemblages and two phases of revetment are described, as well as other features. There is some evidence of activity in the Early Bronze Age. Evidence for Roman activity remains slight although some features and finds material suggest a Roman presence in the area. Traces of Saxon activity are similarly scanty, but the finding of a timber structure, perhaps a bridge, and associated ditch and revetment dating to the late-tenth or early-eleventh century is an indicator of activity in the area. Within the medieval period the sites fall into three categories: those within the royal Palace of Westminster, those within Westminster Abbey and those within the town. The foundations of Westminster Hall have been recorded. To the north lay a dock built in the twelfth century, adjacent to a stone building. The stone gates to New Palace Yard and the Green Yard have been found, with medieval stone buildings adjacent to each. The building in the outer precinct may have been an inn. Within it was a cesspit containing wooden and ceramic assemblages. Excavations by the Jewel Tower uncovered the construction trench for the moat wall and found a surviving stretch of the Westminster Abbey great drain. The foundations of St Stephen's chapel have also been recorded, and records from the 1940s show constructional evidence and floors from the associated cloister. A large thirteenth-century building in the precincts of the Abbey was associated with the October Fair; in its original form it had painted plaster walls and a central pathway. Later alterations included the insertion of timber partitions and hearths. Reclamation on the foreshore indicates that the areas to the north of the palace were taken back from the river progressively and that almost all the area excavated had been reclaimed by the middle of the fourteenth century, although the eastern side was only reclaimed in the sixteenth century. One of the houses of the canons of St Stephen's chapel was found on the reclaimed land. Post-medieval developments include alterations and the eventual rebuilding of the house in the Westminster Abbey precinct, the construction of a fine brick house on the site of the former Woolstaple and eighteenth-century houses built during the expansion of Westminster as a London suburb. Includes French and German summaries; separately authored reports include |
