Prehistoric ploughing and post-medieval occupation at 7-9 Holland Street, Bankside, Southwark
Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Saxby, Dave
Francis, Antony
Date published
2019
Abstract
In the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age the Holland Street site occupied a Thames flood plain eyot surrounded by tidal channels. It was fertile, well-drained, farmed land and fieldwork recovered ard marks, cut features, pottery and evidence of on-site flint working. In the later prehistoric period, the eyot became inundated owing to rising river levels and was gradually buried beneath alluvial clay. Medieval ditches indicate repeated efforts to drain and stabilise land that was at least periodically flooded. These ditches provide botanical and invertebrate indicators of local environmental history and development. As occupation spread southwards from Bankside, the site was fully reclaimed and buildings were constructed in the late 17th century. A boundary ditch or sewer, eventually lined with reused boat timbers, was backfilled around the turn of the 17th/18th century and produced a rich assemblage of household artefacts. Later periods were represented by a series of wells and cesspits that provide a wealth of information on domestic occupation, the local tavern trade and industrial processes carried out in the area in the 18th and 19th centuries, including pottery manufacture and glass working.
Contributor (person)
Betts, Ian M.
Grey, Tony
Jeffries, Nigel
Bowsher, Julian M. C.
Nicholls, Mary
Blackmore, Lyn
Journal title
Surrey Archaeological Collections
Volume
102
Publisher
Surrey Archaeological Society
Place of publication
Guildford, UK
ISSN
0309-7803
Related URL