|  PCA
Publishes new book:
Secrets of the Gardens: Archaeologists Unearth the Lives
of Roman Londoners at Drapers' Gardens
Beneath Drapers’ Gardens, on Throgmorton Avenue, in
what was once a damp and uninviting quarter of the Roman city
of Londinium lies a buried valley, the Walbrook. Excavations
by Pre-Construct Archaeology between 2006 and 2007 provided
further confirmation that this area was home to some of the
more unpleasant industries of the town, as well as producing
some remarkable and unexpected finds, including a hoard of
metal objects buried in a fourth century well.
Buried along with the rest of the settlement under centuries
of detritus the land was bought from Henry VIII in 1543 by
the Drapers’ Company, regulators of the cloth trade
in the City of London. The Company’s ‘Great Garden’
remained largely undisturbed for over 400 years, an oasis
of calm in the thriving and bustling financial centre. This
resulted in fantastic preservation of the Roman remains buried
beneath, despite the construction of one of the tallest buildings
in the City here in the 1960s. These conditions, combined
with the particular soil conditions of the Walbrook Valley
and the sheer size of the area excavated, led to the remarkable
survival of a near complete urban street with associated buildings
spanning many years of the Roman occupation.
Illustrated in full colour throughout Secrets of the Gardens
is aimed at the general reader and presents a picture of the
site as revealed by a selection of the structures, watercourses,
outstanding finds and environmental evidence uncovered. It
includes the story of the excavations themselves and the problems
inherent in excavating a site whilst simultaneously demolishing
one of the tallest towers in London, a history of the Draper’s
company and the planning and design that has gone into the
new building.
80 + viii pages in full colour, includes DVD showing
the excavations in progress, Secrets of the Gardens is available
from PCA directly or from Oxbow Books www.oxbowbooks.com
price £9.95
We have just completed excavations at our site on the Wear
Industrial Estate in Washington, Tyne and Wear. The site lies
north of the site of Harraton Colliery, which was potentially
in operation as early as c. 1590, while the site itself lay
within an area – generally known from the post-medieval
period as 'Harraton Outside'- that was dotted with outlying
coal workings and criss-crossed by numerous waggonways transporting
coal to staithes at Fatfield on the Wear. To read more about
this report follow this link:
Washington Waggonways
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Our Latest Monograph
PCA monograph 11 ‘Pegswood Moor, Morpeth’, 115
pp colour throughout, price £14.95 is available from
PCA (download order
form) or from Oxbow Books www.oxbowbooks.com
A remarkable discovery of prehistoric animal bones has been
made The find is in fact a near complete aurochs skull. Click
here to read more.
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