Report on the Archaeological Weekend in Wanstead Park on 25/26th July, 2009
Archaeology in the Park was an event contributing to the CBA’s Festival of British Archaeology 2009 and it took place over the weekend of the 25th/26th July. Organised by Wanstead Parklands Community Project and in collaboration with the West Essex Archaeological Group. It was approved by the City of London as owners of the Park and was the biggest organised archaeological event to have taken place in historic Wanstead Park. About 25 WEAG diggers under the direction of John Shepherd opened two trenches with a total area of about 40 square meters. Much of the hard work of shifting overburden to get down to the archaeology was avoided thanks to the CoL’s loan of a JCB and a very capable operator, Billy Elgood. The first trench was opened to investigate some interesting anomalies discovered during the radar survey. The dating of a ditch and circular arrangement of possible postholes was valuable in understanding the sequence of occupation. The second trench was aimed at establishing the extent of landscaping in relation to possible Roman levels.
Redeposited Roman building material was abundant in both trenches including pottery fragments, roof and hypocaust tile. But the most exciting find was made by a sharp eyed John who spotted a silver Roman coin of the Emperor Constantius II minted in Lyon during the 340s or 350s. The coin was in pristine condition and had clearly not been in circulation long before being lost. Apparently the equivalent of 3 months pay to the average Roman soldier, a loss that must have hurt.
The dig progressed with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm over the weekend. We had visits from two of the Epping Forest Verderers, Richard Morris OBE, a keen local historian, and Peter Adams. Both seemed impressed by the organisation and professionalism of the dig and interest shown by the public.
Another notable visitor was Frank Clark, WEAG’s President who although frail and in contravention of doctors orders came and viewed the site. Frank cheerfully recalled many anecdotes about his dig at Wanstead during the 1980’s.
We were also pleased to welcome three people who had worked with the first researcher of Wanstead’s Roman Villa, the late Jack Elsden Tuffs in the 1960’s. One, Pete Lovell, has since accumulated 40 years experience as an amateur digger is now a member of WEAG. Pete’s trench produced the second Roman coin of the weekend, minted in the reign of Constantine the Great, dated AD 330-335. A very well deserved find.
Also presenting at the event was the London Archaeologist Association, Redbridge Museum and the WPCP. All agreed the effort had been well worthwhile.
Finally the response from the general public was very enthusiastic. A rough estimate of visitors over the weekend might be about 500. Many of the youngsters delighted in scouring over the spoil heaps searching for bits and pieces of Roman building material. We may have spawned some lifelong archaeology enthusiasts. Certainly we expect WEAG will benefit from several new members.
Overall feedback was very positive with early enthusiasm for running a similar or perhaps expanded event in 2010.
We are grateful to Thames Water and Clancy Docwra for the loan of security fencing and the City of London for permission to work on the site. The cost to WEAG of the event was negligible. A full technical report will be produced in due course. In typical Time Team fashion, the most significant archaeological discovery (for me anyway) came at the eleventh hour, the discovery of one of the postholes shown on the radar survey. Very conveniently the posthole fill contained a nice Roman rim sherd.
I would like to thank all those WEAG members who made the event a success and a joy to be part of and in particular John Shepherd for his patience and guidance. I’d be pleased to be part of the organisation of a bigger event in 2010.
Ralph Potter
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