Series: MoLAS Archaeology Studies Series

Four fourteenth-century Surrey Whiteware kilns were excavated. A substantial quantity of Kingston-type Surrey Whiteware pottery waster material, including many intact vessels, retrieved from kiln interiors, stoking pits and waster pits. The majority of the pottery assemblage was waster material, in the form of small and large jugs and cooking pots. Other forms such as crucibles (some of the smaller examples possibly having functioned as lamps), cups (lobed and plain), bowls, a dripping dish, condiment dish and money box were also represented. At least two anthropomorphic vessels were identified. Many wasters exhibited the variability of kiln firing in the form of discolouration of the fabric and glaze, buckling, explosion or implosion and fusing of vessels. Previously unpublished forms identified from the assemblage comprise the puzzle jug, the `measure' (possibly some form of kiln furniture), the goblet, and the probable lantern; it is thought that the introduction of lobed cups can now be pushed back to the first quarter of the fourteenth century; and the archaeomagnetic dates from two kilns, of 1300--25, suggest that many forms were in common use by 1300. The kiln sites themselves have produced evidence of their superstructure suggesting a variety of capping material, and their plan and structure suggest a degree of care and skill in the loading and stacking of the kilns. There are French and German summaries and specialist reports on:

Report on the excavations at Atlantic House, London, which describes and illustrates new evidence of Roman London's western cemetery. The cemetery was established in the late-first century AD, following land reclamation along the River Fleet, and abandoned in the fourth century. A total of nineteen inhumation burials and twenty-nine cremations were identified at the site, with the majority dating from the second and third centuries. Two timber coffins were rare survivals, and these were lifted and removed for conservation and display at the Museum of London. A rectangular pit lined with timber stakes may originally have been a water-filled feature of ritual significance. The osteological study indicates that the cemetery population was generally healthy, enjoying a balanced diet and suffering few serious diseases. Includes specialist reports on the cemetery population and layout, funerary rites and burial practices, status and society, building materials, Roman pottery, medieval and post-medieval pottery, accessioned finds catalogue, the timber coffins, plant remains, animal bone, and human bone. Also includes French and German summaries.

The volume presents new evidence for early modern industry and settlement at two sites in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Taken together, the Richmond and Mortlake sites provide evidence of the great increase in development occurring in small towns on the outskirts of London from the mid-seventeenth century. Excavation at 29-34 George Street, Richmond also drew on a historical study of documentary evidence, showing the town's development from the fifteenth century onwards. Looking at several sites in Mortlake uncovered evidence pertaining to the post-medieval industry that arose here, including excavation of a First World War shell-filling factory. Includes specialist reports on the documentary evidence, pottery, animal bone and plant remains; also includes French and German summaries.

A site lying in the western half of the Roman city, straddling the major Roman road running from the south side of the forum to leave the city at what is now Newgate. A sequence of fifteen Roman buildings fronting onto the road, together with associated open areas, were recorded. In general these structures were constructed of timber, wattle and brickearth daub and dated to between the first- and mid-second century. Of special note are an early circular wattle structure and the pre-Boudiccan building dated by dendrochronology to AD59-60 that succeeded it. The evidence for the latest Roman structures, which were probably in use into the third century and may have include masonry elements, was fragmentary. The scope of this report is confined to a description of the structural sequence with comments on the more noteworthy small finds and the dating evidence derived from the ceramic and other assemblages. Full finds analysis will be presented in the report describing work at the adjacent site of 1 Poultry. This area was the commercial centre of Late Saxon and medieval London and the outlines of the street system in this area are assumed to have been established in about 886 AD when King Alfred restored the city (Queen Street dates from after the Great Fire of London in 1666). Tenth-century occupation is represented by a series of ground level and sunken timber buildings, associated cut features -- some of which were wattle-lined -- dumping and various other cut features and deposits. From the late-eleventh century stone buildings appear on the site with further pits. The west end of the nave of the parish church of St Pancras, Soper Lane may have been recorded along with a chalk-lined burial vault from its cemetery. A brick-lined pit and a pit recorded during trail work were the only features dated later than the fourteenth century. The volume includes discussion of Anglo-Saxon `treewrightry' and tool kits -- a term derived from the Old English word for woodworker and describing a suite of techniques of structural woodworking of the early medieval period. There are French and German summaries.

The excavations at the Chimes Shopping Centre have given archaeologists the opportunity to trace the development of the medieval town of Uxbridge. The central part of the town was set out during the twelfth century, perhaps as a planned extension of an existing Saxon hamlet. The borough ditch, which marked the boundary of the town, follows the line of George Street. Just inside this, the discovery of a pottery kiln, producing South Hertfordshire greyware shows that Uxbridge was a centre for pottery production throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Medieval expansion south along the High Street can be identified, along with periods of prosperity and recession. Evidence of industrial processes, particularly tanning, date from the seventeenth century onwards, and can be associated with denser occupation along the High Street. By the early nineteenth century the entire street frontage was built up. Includes a special section on the production and distribution of early South Hertfordshire-type greyware, and special reports on building materials, accessioned finds and animal bone; also includes French and German summaries.

Report on findings from two sites on the south side of Newgate Street, excavated in 1998. The sites lay to the east and west of the line of the later Roman defences, but both sites are located to the west of the early settlement boundary of Londinium as defined by the location of burials. The western arm of a natural stream channel, thought to have been a tributary of the River Fleet, was found at 3--9 Newgate Street. The earliest extant human activity consisted of gravel quarrying and a laying-out ditch; this may have been associated with the establishment in c. AD 50 of the main east--west road. The ditch was infilled and two adjacent timber buildings were constructed over it in c. AD 65--75. Two more phases of timber building followed before a localised fire at the end of the first century. One further phase of roadside timber building was apparently constructed before c. AD 120. At 16--17 Old Bailey the first- and early-second-century sequence was significantly different, with no evidence for buildings but traces of a cemetery. Only four inhumations and a possible cremation were recovered. Gravel quarrying was contemporary with or slightly later than the burials, with the quarry pits used for rubbish disposal. The area remained open throughout the second century. At 3--9 Newgate Street the final phase of roadside timber building was demolished to make way for a massive masonry foundation in c AD 140--60 or later; a parallel stone wall lay near the road frontage to the north of the masonry foundation, with which it may have been associated. Conjectured interpretations of the foundations include the proposal that they represent the southern end of a monumental arch or gateway spanning the road, as well as roadside shrines, towers or funerary monuments. The structure was apparently demolished during the late-third or early-fourth century. Also at 3--9 Newgate Street, a managed channel or ditch followed the course of the early stream; this was infilled during the second century prior to construction of the city defensive wall in c. AD 200. After this construction, activity at 16--17 Old Bailey declined dramatically; inside the wall, at 3--9 Newgate Street, a large third-century masonry building was built to the south of the infilled stream, some distance away from the main road. The area was apparently abandoned between the fifth and tenth centuries and the natural stream may have re-formed during this time and reverted to its original course. It was again infilled and levelled between the late-eleventh and thirteenth centuries, with the area subsequently used for rubbish pits. More early medieval rubbish pits were recorded at 16--17 Old Bailey, to the west of the medieval city walls, including some with chalk linings. Masonry buildings were established at 3--9 Newgate Street by the late-thirteenth century but only their chalk foundations have survived. Remains of masonry foundations on the southern part of the site may be related to a fourteenth-century building known as Warwick Inn. Post-medieval features were fragmentary. Includes French and German summaries, and separately authored contributions on

Excavations revealed one of the Lambeth `pothouses' of the Doulton company. This small pottery factory made stoneware bottles and other vessels between the 1870s and 1926, the majority of which were used as packaging for ginger beer, ink and other products. Five pottery kilns were uncovered and still contained vessels and parts of the kiln structure, enabling a study of both the products and the manufacturing process. The site is set in its historical context, with essays examining the Lambeth stoneware industry and the links between Henry Doulton and other Victorian social reformers such as Edwin Chadwick and Joseph Cowen. A nineteenth-century soap works that preceded Doulton's pothouse is also discussed. Includes French and German summaries and

Extensive archaeological remains of Roman and post-medieval date were uncovered during the course of work, including the square base of a substantial Roman masonry structure. This was interpreted by the excavator as a late third-century military signal tower, on the basis of its form and its location and visibility on the north bank of the Thames. Timber structures were found just to the east of the masonry building. Examination of the site archive led to a reinterpretation of the site sequence, which included several phases of use from the first to the late fourth century AD. Gravel or brickearth quarrying in the late-first or early-second century, was followed by the establishment of a cremation cemetery during the second century, with nine cremations recorded in two clusters. The site lies c. 500m east of the easternmost known extent of the main cemetery outside the Roman city and 100m south of the projected line of the Roman road which ran through that cemetery. The 9m square masonry `tower' is thought to date to the second half of the second century or slightly later and may therefore have been contemporary with and a focus for the burials. The method of construction is consistent with that of mausolea, some of which are thought to have been tower like in appearance. In the third century the area was divided into plots and a substantial rectilinear timber building and other structures and pits associated with domestic occupation were established. Associated animal bone evidence may indicate that large-scale butchery took place nearby. In the mid-fourth century, the latest phase of field boundaries were infilled and clay- and timber-lined tanks and drains constructed, suggesting that the site was turned over to industrial use. A pair of leather briefs was found in the fill of one of the tanks. Demolition of the masonry structure, deposition of building rubble and the subsequent accumulation of agricultural soil marked abandonment of the area in the second half of the fourth century. Two inhumation burials may also date to this period, indicating a final return to use of the site as a cemetery. The pottery and coin assemblages are unusually large for a non-urban site and follow an unusual chronological profile, peaking in the late-third century; a large farm or hinterland settlement perhaps lay nearby. There was little in the finds assemblage that could be characterized as military, except possibly the samian. The site produced some of the latest samian known from Britain, with a high proportion of late East Gaulish wares. There are French and German summaries and specialist reports on: