Newsletter

Autumn 2017
In this issue:

Now we are Nine! 2017 Fieldwork Round Up

Updates from our FROGs across

By Nathalie Cohen
London

News about our exciting Tideway

and City Bridge Trust Projects

Join us at the Foreshore Forum 2017

In October, we will be celebrating our 9th birthday at

the annual Foreshore Forum. Were really excited this
year to be holding the conference at a beautiful
riverside venue (many thanks to Norton Rose Fulbright
and CH2M for supporting this event), and that the
forum this year is a two -day event, with our
colleagues at CITiZAN. It promises to be a fantastic
Kirsty with her basket at Surrey Docks Farm, April 2017
weekend exploring aspects of inter-tidal and coastal
archaeology from across the UK with speakers from
Welcome to the Autumn 2017 Newsletter! MOLA, Historic England, Scotlands Coastal Heritage
As ever its been a busy summer and this edition will at Risk, CHERISH and papers from community
bring you right up to date with all of our training volunteers from TDP and CITiZAN. At the conference,
and fieldwork events so far through 2017. Weve we will also be launching A Rivers Tale, the new
been working out on site at Greenwich, Surrey Thames Discovery Programme book!
Docks, Putney, Cannon Street, Isleworth, Brentford, We look forward to seeing you all soon and hope you
Deptford, Charlton and Rotherhithe many thanks enjoy this edition of the TDP Newsletter!
to all of the Foreshore Recording and Observation
Group members who have braved everything the
British weather can throw at them this year. Theres
an update from Eliott about results of the fieldwork
in this Newsletter, and there is also a short article
about our work at Surrey Docks on the TDP website.
Weve also been running lots of events and
activities for families and young people as part of
the Tideway-funded schools and TaDPoles
programme, and also for older audiences with
thanks to funding from City Bridge Trust.
During autumn, we are running a series of walks for
Totally Thames a great opportunity to find out
more about a number of our key sites and the work
of the FROG.
A school group enjoying the Tower foreshore in June, 2017
Tideway: A Year On!
By Josh Frost
It seems like only yesterday that I
began my time at the Thames
Discovery Programme and enjoyed a
week doing fieldwork in the sun at
Tower Beach. The ensuing year has
been busy with a great deal of work
being done to bring together all the
strands of the Tideway program,
consisting of our schools offer,
Tadpoles and community events.
We have worked with eight different
schools this year engaging with over
1,000 children in the process. This has
consisted of foreshore sessions,
assemblies and finds handling session.
This included a great week working
alongside Tower Bridge and the MOLA
Time Truck exploring the Tower
foreshore.
Our Tadpoles sessions took place in
the City, Putney and at Deptford.
These have included Tadpoles
creating maps of the foreshore and
using the CITiZAN app. We had a
special treat in Deptford when we
were joined by MOLA specialist Alan
Pipe who was able to identify a range
of animal bone for the children.
We have also run three community
workshops and one community
lecture (with another coming up this
monthsee our events page for more
information). These events have been
well attended and have covered a
wide breadth of topics from research
skills to 3D photogrammetry and ship
building and breaking. Keep an eye Tadpoles at Putney, May 2016
on the website for future events.

2017 Summer Season Round-up

By Eliott Wragg
As is now traditional we kicked off the
summer season in March at
Greenwich along with our first training
course of the year. Equally traditionally
we re-recorded the Tudor/Stuart jetty
structure- as ever new elements had
appeared whilst old friends had
washed away. New insight was given
by a civil engineer friend of Martin
Hatton who agreed with our
interpretation of two phases of
construction but suggested that the
first phase was actually a temporary
enabling structure to help with
building the jetty. Further upstream
new masonry and timbers possibly
associated with drainage were also
recorded.
April found us at Surrey Docks Farm,
again with a round of training. The
focus here was upon recording and
sampling a large number of fish or eel
baskets, some of which were almost
intact. As yet the samples have not
been dated but previous examples
have ranged from the 15th to the 19th
centuries. The mid-section of the
bottom of a Thames sailing barge was
also recorded.
Page 2
In May we continued to record the
WWI sub-chaser/Dunkirk Little Ship
ML286/Eothen at Isleworth Ait before
moving downstream to Putney, the
intention being to record a number of
new posts which had been identified
during last years monitoring visit.
Sadly, either they had washed away
or the tide wasnt low enough for
them to be visible so we
concentrated upon recording more of
the re-used masonry river defences
below the river wall.
Cannon Street was the focus of our
fieldwork in June. As the foreshore
beneath the railway bridge is
rumoured to shortly be re-constituted
to protect the river wall we prioritised
this area, recording the remains of two
phases of revetment, the earliest of
which may pre-date the 19th century,
along with some brick drain outlets,
the base of the river stairs and some
possible causeway elements.
In July we visited Deptford to explore
the foreshore in front of the former
Royal Dockyard, concentrating upon
a new slipway that had first become
visible in 2016. Of different
construction to the one we recorded
in 2013 which dated to the mid-19th
Fieldwork at Isleworth Ait, June 2016
century, this one may well be earlier.
We then re-visited Charlton where we
planned more of the timber stack of
19th century warship timbers which
had become visible.
Augusts fieldwork started with a week
at Brentford where we recorded the
remains of two small craft suggested
by one of the locals as ex American
WWII torpedo boats. One of them was
certainly not, being a lightly
constructed possible ships boat, the
other, being of heavier construction
though heavily degraded, may
possibly have been, although it still
seemed a little small.We rounded off
the summer season at Rotherhithe
below the Mayflower ph where the
erosion continues apace. As at
Greenwich, old features had washed
away while new ones were revealed
including a new windlass and rudder
elements- all probably from 18th/early
19th century vessels.
FROG Round Up
Rotherhithe and Bermondsey News
By Margaret Sparks

Fieldwork at Rotherhithe, August 2017

Our FROG group monitors Rotherhithe, whats left
of Bermondsey, and the site between them,
FSW02. The most obvious thing that we are seeing
is lots of erosion, especially in Rotherhithe, where
some of the very numerous mooring features are
floating freely around the foreshore. Erosion is also
revealing a couple of concentrated nail and
metal scatters, which are usually a sign of
shipbreaking. There is another gun carriage
underneath the main barge bed, we probably
wouldnt have spotted it without the mudlark,
Allan, showing it to us. Its at a similar level to the
other one, presumably also being used to form a
flat level surface to set the barge bed on. It was
also Allan who explained why we are seeing so
many more chains on the foreshore, apparently
the PLA are dredging them up and dumping them
higher up, out of the channel.
One thing weve started to notice is that there are
signs that boundaries were actually marked on the
foreshore, with lines of posts. I dont think wed
considered that, if you were working on the
foreshore, you might want demarcation lines
between properties, but it does make sense. We
had an excellent low tide on our early spring visit
to FSW02, and had the best look weve had at a
complicated structure involving a pipe, a square
stake-and-plank enclosure with a circular metal
feature inside it, and a drainage channel down
into the river. Much of this must basically be
below the low water mark all the time. Eliott tells
us it is the base of a hydraulic crane.
In Bermondsey the causeway and the big
gridiron, and possibly an earlier one, are still
there, but most of the site is now hidden by the
Thames Tideway Tunnel coffer dam. But there is
a group of intriguing timber posts that have
recently emerged, ten round posts with the bark
still on, set in an irregular pattern. We have
shown them to Eliott and to Nathalie without
getting an answer about what they might be!
So, nothing major at the moment, but plenty to
keep us interested.

Page 3
More erosion at Greenwich
By Helen Johnston
This years fieldwork at Greenwich
Palace took place in March,
three months after rock armour
was placed on the foreshore to
reinforce the the river wall in front
of the Old Royal Naval College.
Weve been monitoring the site
regularly over the summer, and
theres been a significant
change in the foreshore since the
foreshore repair work took place.
There has been a noticeable
drop in the foreshore level in front
of the Kings Stairs, and also in the
area in front of the Bellot
Memorial. Interestingly, the jetty
area seems a bit more stable, this
New Brentford and Isleworth FROGs
By Samantha Brummage
Just a short note from the group-
to-be! After a few muddy
fieldwork days on Isleworth Ait
and Brentford foreshore a few of
us have decided to form a
focussed Brentford & Isleworth
FROG group. This will be primarily
for monitoring and recording the
foreshore and aits but we are
also hoping to extend the scope
of the group to an oral history
project.
Having lived in Brentford for 10
years and now being further west
in Uxbridge, I have been looking
for a way to re-establish my
connection with the area. I
volunteered for a few years at
the Brentford Toll House Museum
on Brentford Lock and while I was
there got to know some of the
local historians who are part of
the heritage guides association.
Many of the guides have lived in
Isleworth or Brentford for over 50
Page 4
is the area that usually suffers
the most from erosion, although
there has been damage here,
its not as much as in other
areas
This damage has revealed
New baseplate at Greenwich, August 2017
more of the causeways and
the large chalk barge bed in
front of the Kings Stairs, which we photogrammetry as a way to
think are various phases of
access to the Seamans Hospital.
Theres also an intriguing new
baseplate between the jetty and
the steps, its only been revealed
in the last month or so, so were
not sure what it relates to yet.
Fieldwork at Brentford, August 2017
years and have seen much
transformation of the riverside
which they themselves have
often researched, documented
and spoken about for the local
history society and guided walks.
Weve been trying out
record and monitor the foreshore
changes. Its a very easy way to
capture individual features on
the foreshore. Were going to
share some of our 3d models at
the Foreshore Forum in October.
An already interesting aspect
which emerged when I
contacted one of the guides was
that there wasnt much of a
riverside in Brentford as it was
hidden behind the gasworks!
We have contacted the guides
and are now hoping to meet up
on one of their coffee mornings
to talk about the oral history
project and the interviews. We
are hoping that not only will
narratives of Brentford and
Isleworth riverside be valuable as
a stand-alone historical account,
but that they will provide fresh
perspectives for monitoring visits
and be used alongside any
documentary records.
We are a very small group of 4 at
the moment and we are looking
for other members! Do get in
touch if youd like to join us!
Older Londoners Project
By Helen Johnston
North London University of the Third Age
guided walk at Rotherhithe, March 2017
Our Older Londoners Project,
funded by City Bridge Trust, aims
to engage people aged 75 and
over with the archaeology or the
Thames foreshore. Weve really
picked up the pace with the
project in the last few months,
and have been busy doing talks,
walks and handling sessions with
groups across London.
Foreshore Forum 2017
28th 29th October 2017
Tickets: Weekend Ticket: 50; Saturday/Sunday only: 30
Book now! https://foreshoreforum2017.eventbrite.co.uk
Some of the highlights so far have carers and
been handling sessions with support staff
dementia groups and care home have learnt
residents in East London. We take new details
along photographs of our work about peoples
on the foreshore and some of the pasts from their conversations.
foreshore features we monitor, as
We have also started a new
well as our handling collection of
Shared Learning Project with a
foreshore artefacts. The sessions
group of University of the Third
are a fantastic way to spark
Age members. Called Sail to
conversations and share
Steam, the group will spend three
memories. We have had some
months researching the transition
lovely feedback, both from the
from wooden to iron ship building
participants themselves, and
on the Thames, by investigating
session organisers. The tactile
the histories of some of the
nature of the sessions means that
Thames shipbuilding firms. They
everyone can get involved,
are going to share the results of
regardless of their abilities, and
their work on the Riverpedia on
our website, and at the Foreshore
Thank you, you made me feel
Forum in October.
young again
Join the Thames Discovery Programme (TDP)
and the Coastal and Intertidal Zone
Archaeological Network (CITiZAN) for the
Foreshore Forum 2017 a whole weekend of
intertidal archaeology from the river to the
sea.
Venue: Norton Rose Fulbright, 3 More London
Riverside, London, SE1 2AQ
Please note: ticket prices include tea, coffee
and refreshments during breaks and lunch
each day. There will also be an evening
reception on Saturday, wine and nibbles
included.
Page 5
Upcoming Events
Totally Thames Walks and conversation for older people.
9th September, 9:45am: Greenwich To celebrate Silver Sunday, and as part of
10th September, 10:45am: Cannon Street
11th September, 10:45am: Rotherhithe
21st September, 9am: Burrells Wharf
22nd September, 9:30am: Greenwich
23rd September, 10am: Bankside

Foreshore walks are 10.15 per person
All events are FREE for over 75s
Lectures and Workshops
18th November:
Flint Tools and Knapping techniques
workshop
1st December:
TDP Top TenNathalie Cohen
All our lectures workshops are FREE,
booking open soon!
Remembering the Thames Tea Party
10th October 2017, 2pm4pm
our Older Londoners Project, we are
hosting an afternoon tea for older people
to share your memories of the River Thames
and find out about the fascinating
archaeology along its banks.
We will have artefacts from the Thames
foreshore on display and images of the
Thames through time for you to examine.
Location: Visitors Centre, Mortimer Wheeler
House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London, N1
7ED
RSVP to 020 7410 2200 or email
thamesdiscovery@mola.org.uk

Join us for a free afternoon of tea, cake,

To book visit: www.thamesdiscovery.org

Thames Discovery Programme
Museum of London Archaeology
Mortimer Wheeler House
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London Phone: 020 7410 2207
N1 7ED E-mail: thamesdiscovery@mola.org.uk