The search for Wanstead's Roman villa

By Richard Arnopp

In 2005 a group of local people set up the Wanstead Parklands Community Project (WPCP) to raise public awareness of the history and ecology of Wanstead Park and to campaign for its preservation and enhancement. In July 2006 the WPCP was successful in an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funding under the Local Heritage Initiative.

The WPCP's first major project has been a geophysical survey of the area north of the Heronry and Perch ponds in conjunction with the West Essex Archaeological Group (WEAG). The objective was to locate a Roman building or buildings which were believed to have been in the area, as well as any other features of archaeological interest that might be present.

The WPCP/WEAG survey is as yet incomplete, but has already covered a much larger area than any previous work of this kind in Wanstead Park. The ambitious scale and systematic approach of the work has borne fruit in that, as well as identifying a variety of buried features which were entirely unknown, the survey has shed new light on others which had been previously noted by more limited geophysical investigation but poorly understood.

The evidence obtained to date seems to indicate that a Roman site of considerable significance may be present, though ultimately excavation will be necessary to confirm this. Also, important clues are being obtained to the development of the eighteenth century park landscape.

Roman Britain

The Wanstead area in the Roman period

Roads

A mile or so to the south of Wanstead Park was the Roman road from London to Colchester, the route of which is approximately followed by the modern A12. To the west and north passed the road from London to Great Dunmow, which crossed Bushwood, George Green and the Hermon Hill area. A Roman bath house found at Abridge may have been part of a mansio on this road (a mansio was an inn for officials on public business).

Settlements

There was a settlement of some significance in the area around Leyton and Old Ford, which was effectively London's port in the later Roman period. Several villa estates are known to have existed along the Roding Valley, and Roman cemeteries containing stone sarcophagi and other evidence of high-status burials have been found at East Ham, Valentines, Upney and Clapton. That Wanstead Park was the site of a probable Roman villa has been known since at least the eighteenth century. Smart Lethieullier, a local landowner and antiquarian, recorded the discovery of a tessellated pavement and other antiquities in three letters he wrote between 1735 and 1746.

Discovered... and destroyed

The occasion of the discoveries described by Smart Lethieullier was the massive landscaping works undertaken between 1715 and 1746, when Wanstead Park as we know it took shape.

According to Lethieullier, the pavement -

"was situated on a gentle gravely ascent towards the north, and at a small distance from the south end of it I remember a well of exceeding fine water, now absorbed in a great pond".

As well as the discovery of the pavement, Lethieullier's first letter mentions "foundations", which he believed to be Roman, at some distance to the south of the pavement, and on the very edge of the Wanstead estate: -

"[...] about 300 yards due south from the said well and pavement, there were, in my memory, the ruins of foundations to be seen, though now destroyed by planting trees round the park pales"

Whether these were uncovered at the time, or were already visible, he does not specify. He also mentions that they were associated with "mounds", which are also not further described.

The second letter also mentions the "foundation of a Roman building", "at a small distance" from the site of the pavement. Lethieullier goes on to state that in the summer of 1746 workmen showed him "urns" "of the coarsest earth" and bones they had discovered, which he believed to be the remains of Roman burials, as well as at least three coins.

Unfortunately, -

"...the whole is now obliterated, and the face of the ground so much changed, that a curious enquirer must ask Ubi Troja fuit?"

The search for the villa begins

The exact locations of the Roman remains described by Smart Lethieullier were subsequently lost for two centuries, though by the 1960s Jack Elsden Tuffs and other local amateurs had established that the pavement, at least, probably lay somewhere in the area now known as the Plain. As well as sweeping the area systematically for scattered remains, Mr Tuffs carried out a number of small test excavations in the early 1960s close to the north bank of the Perch Pond, in which he came across significant quantities of high quality painted wall plaster, tile and other indications of a demolished building. He also found a few coins, of third and fourth century dates.

The first WEAG excavations

In 1980s Frank Clark, of the West Essex Archaeological Group, led further large-scale investigation of the Plain, with similar results to Mr Tuffs - a good deal of wall plaster and other demolition debris (including a small column base) was found, mainly concentrated in localised deposits between the boat house and the refreshment hut. Evidence of buildings, however, was limited and doubtful.

GSB PROSPECTION LTD

In October 2005, Thames Water, in response to concerns from the public over plans to install a pipeline across the site of the Roman Villa marked on the OS map, commissioned GSB Prospection Ltd to undertake a limited geophysical survey of a 3ha area covering the supposed site of the Roman villa. The report noted a good deal of evidence for past human activity on the Plain, including large ring ditches, which they assumed to be of pre-Roman date. Other significant anomalies, some indicating linear features, were picked up on both sides of the Plain. However, the full significance of some of the results was not, at the time, recognised.

The current WPCP/WEAG survey

In February 2007, a limited survey was carried out by WEAG, using ground penetrating radar (GPR). This covered an area 15x35m, running north-south to a point just north of the refreshment hut, and showed anomalies consistent with the buried foundations of a large masonry building running diagonally across the survey area. What appeared to be at least two rooms were visible.

Given the lack of any evidence that the site had ever been built on in mediaeval times or later, any such structure was considered likely to date from the Roman period.

The survey is extended

- with unexpected results

Later in 2007 the promising results of the geophysical surveys to date prompted further work over a larger area. Magnetometry over all areas of the Plain which were not rendered inaccessible by trees, scrub or ant-hills confirmed the existence of the buried features on the east of the Plain, and largely replicated the findings of GSB, though over a considerably larger area. Informative though the survey was, some areas were badly affected by interference from the buried metal sockets of pre-war tennis courts, and a supplementary resistivity survey is currently being carried out in selected locations.

It was the next phase of the GPR survey which produced the most unexpected result. As well as confirming the existence of the apparent foundations noted previously, it revealed strong linear anomalies across a large area of the western side of the Plain, which had hitherto been somewhat neglected. These covered an area of at least 9,000 square metres, and also appeared likely, in terms of their size and disposition, to be the foundations of a building.

At the time of writing, archaeological investigation of the Plain is still continuing. GPR has produced striking results, but even those areas where masonry structures are believed most likely to be found have not yet been fully covered.

The latest development is that park authorities have kindly granted permission for a number of small test trenches to be sunk in areas which seem to be particularly interesting in archaeological terms, and this work will begin on 16 May 2008.

WPCP will publish regular updates on progress.

East London's answer to Pompeii?

Alas, probably not.

Until the eighteenth century, the Wanstead site probably remained relatively undisturbed, in a landscape that may have changed little in several millennia. Unfortunately, the landscaping projects of Sir Richard Child, later Lord Castlemaine and Earl Tylney, seem to have had a devastating impact on the archaeology.

The centrepiece of the scheme was the construction of a new chain of ornamental lakes running roughly from west to east along the shallow valley on the south side of the Plain. This was a major undertaking, requiring excavations on an extraordinarily ambitious scale.

In addition to building the lakes themselves, it was necessary to create a landscape around them. Where there had been significant excavation, the immediate surroundings needed to be cut back so that lakes were surrounded by level paths. The wider terrain also needed to be rounded off to ensure that the contours of the ground appeared pleasing and natural to the eye, and that attractive prospects were provided both from, and toward, the house and gardens to the north.

The evidence of the geophysical surveys and some limited test auguring of the site to date suggest that any Roman remains which had survived the Middle Ages would probably have been truncated - or even grubbed up entirely - when the area was levelled. This means that over much of the site little is likely to remain of any buildings other than the lower levels of the foundation trenches and perhaps some of the footings. It is possible that some areas may have been less severely damaged, but that remains to be seen. It should, however, still be possible to discover a good deal about the nature and history of the site - and expanding knowledge is what archaeology is really about. Finding beautiful or valuable artefacts is just a bonus.

A SELECTION OF GEOPHYSICAL IMAGES FROM WANSTEAD PARK

Magnetometry plot

The curious white "explosions" across the plain are caused by the metal sockets for the net posts of pre-war tennis courts, which remain buried in the ground.

THE SURVEY IN PROGRESS