The working life of Museum of London

As a very amateur archaeologist who volunteers on National Trust Working Archaeology Holidays, imagine how excited I was when I found out the Museum of London was having a community dig in my neighbourhood, only a 10 minute walk from my home! I hastened to ask if they wouldn’t mind having a volunteer from Museum staff join the dig. Jackie, Kate and Meriel were very sweet and agreed I could come along and get my hands dirty. “I’ll bring my own trowel and gloves” I promised, hoping to ingratiate myself.

Sadly, I was only able to join the dig for 2 hours on Saturday morning, but it was a fun (if very hot and dusty) two hours. I arrived shortly after 9am, an hour before the Camden Young Archaeologists members; and Francis Grew and Kate put me right to work in a back corner of Trench 2. I am the person on the far left of one of the photos in the blog for Day 12 at Burgess Park below, which shows us all working in a neat little square.

There’s nothing quite as fun as revealing what once was a house, even if most of it is a post-bomb site pile of rubble (although I understand that the bomb didn’t actually hit the house outright) and I was very pleased to excavate a section of ceramic pipe, a Bakelite light switch with some wire still attached and a bit of glazed tile, along with a bit of what I thought might be fused glass from the heat of the explosion (but that is an un-educated guess!).  I left the glass in situ with the pipe, although perhaps the enthusiastic young archaeologist after me may have added them to a finds tray later on!

It was really fun to be on the field side of things (in contrast to the field notes side of things that records managers/archivists like me are used to) for a change and big thanks are due to the archaeology team who agreed I could come along.

Sarah Demb, Museum of London

‘Is this supposed to make us like archaeology?’ One girl from the Harrow Young Archaeologists Club evidently had her doubts, as she began trowelling away demolition rubble during the baking heat of Saturday afternoon. Yet half an hour later she was had become so absorbed in her task that the leaders had the utmost difficulty prising her out of the trench!

Everyone feels that the dig is reaching a critical phase. Whereas the front wall and coal cellar of the house on Trafalgar Avenue are clear to see, the back half of the site stubbornly refuses to reveal its secrets. Was the bomb damage much greater here than previously believed? Was the building totally destroyed, right down to its foundations? For the moment at least, we are just trowelling through layers of rubble.

With temperatures in the 30s, Saturday was a day for finds’ washing. Neither the Harrow diggers nor the Camden Young Archaeologists, who worked on site in the morning, minded swapping their trowels for a washing-up bowl of muddy water. And all the time we continue to find evidence for what the house looked like before it was destroyed by that V2 rocket. A fine red marble moulding, perhaps from a fireplace, came to light today. And we know that the cornice, the ceiling and perhaps the door frames were finished with highly decorated plasterwork in ‘Wedgwood’ blue.

Francis Grew, London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre Manager

The final Friday of our 2010 community dig was in fact only a half day. In the afternoon volunteers from the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre’s volunteer programme (VIP: “Volunteer Inclusion Project”) joined us to have a change from packing objects in the stores to finding things on site.

As per usual, we started with an introduction to the area, looking at old maps and comparing them to the surviving built environment around us. Then it was into the trench to carefully scrap away at the layers of earth that hold Burgess Park’s history within. We find that 30 minutes in the trench is just about right before people start to get too hot, so we swap them over to the finds washing which takes place under the cool shade of the horse chestnut tree.

Volunteers play a huge part in the running of the Museum, especially within the Museum’s Department of Archaeological Collections and Archive. Over the two weeks of this dig 15 people have volunteered their time to help out with the supervision of the schoolchildren, both within the trench and at the finds washing tables. Our volunteers have included current students of archaeology, current Museum volunteers, work experience students and unemployed people looking for some extra skills to add to their CVs. We’ve also had volunteers from a range of backgrounds join us including France, Spain & Japan, each sharing knowledge of archaeological practices from their home country and picking up tips from our methods of community engagement.

 Many thanks to all the volunteers who have played a big part in this year’s community dig.

Adam Corsini, Museum of London

Today was the antepenultimate day of our community dig and last day of school groups! We were joined by Year 7 pupils from another local school – Walworth Academy – and although the weather started off shaky, it turned into a scorcher by the afternoon.

Our Walworth students made excellent progress on excavating and processing finds from No. 84 Trafalgar Avenue. As we delved deeper into the trench we started to unearth more complete and substantial remains, especially building material of the original properties. This included huge pieces of walling with original plaster still attached and whole floor tiles which were cemented together.

An interesting find was the base of a ceramic vessel with the mark ‘Alfred B. Pearce and Company – 39 Ludgate Hill, London’. Back at the Museum of London I was able to discover a porcelain cup with the same mark in our Ceramic and Glass collection! This local company was active from the end of the 19th century and supplied a wide variety of ceramic and porcelain tableware.

Excitement was also happening directly opposite us where a new trench was opened up by a very large trowel known as a JCB(!), supervised by archaeologists Sadie and Bruce from Musuem of London Archaeology.

An assortment of finds started to appear including a bicycle pump, pair of pliers, button, bead, slate pencil and fountain pen – all very personal and practical objects. Of especial note were two connecting fragments of a ceramic vessel baring the Margate coat of arms and motto: Porta Maris Portus Salutis. Unlike our local piece of pottery supplied from Ludgate Hill, this little cup may have travelled all the way from Margate, along the old Dover Road (now the A2) which leads all the way to the Old Kent Road.

With two more days to go, it’s a rush to see if we can find any more meaningful artefacts and archaeology. On Monday the first week of our training excavation commences and a number of us here at the Museum of London will hang up our trowels until next year’s community dig…

Glynn Davis, LAARC, Museum of London

See our Flickr photostream for more photos from Day 10 at Burgess Park

The excavation continues and today we were helped by pupils from Camelot Primary School in the morning and Cobourg Primary School in the afternoon. A big thank-you to all the pupils who took part today; I think you can see from the photos that they had fun!

The digging is being supervised by Tom Hoyle, who works for Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). This isn’t his first experience of community archaeology. Last year he worked on the Big Dig at the Museum of London Docklands. This was an indoor activity where families could learn how to dig in a replica excavation. The Big Dig will be running again on 24 and 25 July as part of the Festival of British Archaeology activities at the Museum of London and places on it can be booked on the day.

Tom is really enjoying the community dig at Burgess Park. He has worked at MOLA for three years and before that at Leicester where he found a Roman lead curse – the most exciting thing that he has ever found. Maybe Burgess Park will turn up something to rival this! Tom says he enjoys meeting the schools and helping them to learn about archaeology. As he says: ‘Every day brings a new challenge!’

Today also saw the marking out of the new trench which we will be opening up tomorrow. This trench will form part of the Museum of London’s training excavation which starts on Monday and runs for two weeks. We are excavating a trench facing onto Pepler Road, which should allow us to see what the houses were like on that road. We know that they are later in date than those on Trafalgar Avenue, so we want to see how they differ in terms of construction and the artefacts recovered.

In the picture above top, you can see archaeologist Ian Blair marking out the new trench. In the picture above, is Pepler Road, once a busy road with houses full of families living there. Today it is a road to no-where, as only one end of it survives, off Waite Street, before it becomes a meandering path through the park.

Jackie Keily, Museum of London

See our Flickr photostream for more photos from Day 9 at Burgess Park

At 10am on Valentine’s Day in 1945 a V2 rocket hit our area of Burgess Park.  Reports state that it fell in the gardens between Waite Street and Pepler Road.  18 people were killed, 49 were injured & 25 houses were damaged.  The house we are excavating was damaged beyond repair.  At 10am the majority of people were at work or school, 193 people lived in the vicinity of the bomb site.  Had the bomb landed in the evening the casualties could have been much higher.   

The full name of the V2 rocket is Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Reprisal weapon 2).  The rocket that landed at Waite Street was fired from German occupied Holland.  A V2 rocket would fire 50miles up into the air before plummeting to earth at such speed that the impact felt like an earthquake.  There was no warning and so the people who died were not in shelters rather they were visiting neighbours or at home, going about their everyday business.

Here is a list of those that died,
Thomas Richard Aplin (53) of Shakespeare Road, Lambeth at No. 112
James Wladen (81) and Sarah Ann (78) Brown of No. 80
Frederick Hastings (72) and Sarah Ann (69) Burgess of No. 78
Eleanor Dean (51), also Home Guard Sidney George Robert Easton (60) and Grace Mary Easton (58) W.V.W. of No 82 at No 112
Beatrice Violet (52) and Jean (12) Duncan of No. 72
Jack Horsman (52) of No. 76 At No. 82
Emma Alice Maggs (58) of No. 80
Charlotte Elizabeth Manley (74) of No 74
Florence Patient (47) of No 84
Beatrice Kate Sansom (70) of No 78 at No 112
Ellen Ward (69) of No 74 at No 112 (in garage)
Katherine Elizabeth Weightman (54) of 132 Cator Street at No 112 (in garage)

Sunday 18th Feb
Annie Harriett Purser (46) of 9 Limerick House, Sumner Road at St Giles’ Hospital

[Taken from FlyingBombsandRockets]

Pupils form a circle showing how big the crater was after the V2 hit. People who lived locally later said that they used to play in the crater as children.  They reported that the crater measured 40ft across and 10ft deep and there was an omnipresent smell of gas escaping from the severed pipes.

Charlesworth, T. 2000. The Story of Burgess Park. Groundwork, Southwark, London. Thanks also to David Benson, local resident.

Kate Sumnall, Museum of London

Moving into the second week and it was time for two Museum of London projects to meet as volunteers from the Museum’s London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC) came along to dig and wash finds. Usually today’s participants pack objects at the LAARC as part of the Volunteer Inclusion Programme (LAARC VIP), but today they found themselves exposing more of the foundations to the coal cellar and removing another layer of material from the garden area. One lucky volunteer added to the number of coins from the site as a George VI coin dating from 1938 cropped up.

The trench is looking quite different to how it looked this time last week. We now have a nice clear line of bricks running through the middle of the trench, defining the different areas of No. 84 Trafalgar Ave. Some surfaces have been discovered and brushed clean and you can really get the sense that this was once a house with people living in it.

The surrounding area is also revealing itself through the finds that are being discovered, with a lot of material seemingly relating to the public house that stood nearby.

More school groups will be coming to the dig this week and the rest of the LAARC VIP Volunteers will be joining us on Friday.

Adam Corsini, LAARC, Museum of London

See our Flickr photostream for more photos from Day 7 at Burgess Park

Today the Rotherhithe branch of the Young Archaeologists’ Club visited in the morning, and the Central London branch visited in the afternoon. All the members were very interested in the local history, and of course the digging and cleaning activities! More evidence of The Victory, a pub on the corner of Trafalgar Avenue and Waite Street emerged from the trench including pottery, glass bottles and an interesting soda water siphon.

Due to the lack of weekday rush hour traffic I arrived earlier than usual which allowed me some time to familiarise myself with the park and buildings along Old Kent Road before the first group arrived. Having passed the unassuming art gallery on the corner of Old Kent Road and Albany Road every day this week it was only upon closer inspection that I noticed a blue plaque tucked away in a disused doorway. This blue plaque had been voted for by the local residents and installed by Southwark council.

After hearing visitors’ stories of how the area has changed in the last fifty years I decided to conduct some research into this building.

The building used to be called the Thomas A Beckett public house and above the pub was a gymnasium that was used by Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Frazier and Mohammed Ali amongst others when visiting London, but most famously by Henry Cooper, the British, European and Commonwealth boxing champion from 1954 – 68. The blue plaque commemorates Henry Cooper.

Further research about the building revealed that in medieval London the Archbishop of Canterbury’s authority ended at a stream and pond on the junction with Shornecliff Road called St Thomas–a-Waterings. The area was used for executions. The pub was originally named after this area.

The martyr Thomas  A Beckett (born 1118 – died 29 December 1170), gave a sermon at the Augustinian St Mary’s Priory in Southwark on 23 December 1170 which was seen as his last public act of defiance before his assassination. A pilgrimage developed following his death between Southwark and his shrine at Canterbury. St Thomas-a-Waterings became a resting place on this pilgrimage route and is referred to in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

An incident in 1888 caused public alarm when ‘a shiny black bag’ was left in the building containing “a very sharp dagger, a clasp knife, two pairs of very long and very curious looking scissors and two preservers”.  At the time the Whitechapel murders were ongoing and unsolved and the discovery of the bag led to the arrest of a suspect however it was not Jack the Ripper. The murders remain unsolved to this day.

The last notable historical connection I discovered was that after the gym above the pub closed, the rooms were used by David Bowie in the early 1970s as an audition and practice area for his band which later released the album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Please have a look at the building next time you pass it, and if you have any information about the buildings on Trafalgar Avenue or the surrounding streets please come to the excavation and tell us your memories

The first week has been a great success and all the different groups have had a hands-on experience of archaeology. I hope that next week will be as successful and that the sunshine continues.

Dan Nesbitt, Museum of London

See our Flickr photostream for more photos from Day 6 at Burgess Park

84 TRAFALGAR AVENUE

As well as digging holes in the ground at Burgess Park, we’re also digging through the Census returns for the houses we’re finding – and the current work is on what used to be 84 Trafalgar Road. Since the records are not published for 100 years, we can only see the censuses up to 1911, so can find out who lived in the houses when they were new, but not when the bomb fell. Here’s an overview of what we’ve discovered so far.

1871 – The Davis family, all born locally, lived at No 84, a husband and wife, 5 sons (aged 13-25), 1 daughter (aged 11) and a niece (aged 8). Mr Davis was a cashier for a firm of solicitors, 2 of his sons were clerks and another tailor. The younger children were at school.

1881 – Miss Sarah Wild was head of the house, living on independent means with 2 nieces. All 3 were born in Oldham, Lancashire, and on the day of the census, 2 other ladies from Oldham were staying with them.

1891 – No 84 is now split into two households. Albert Worsley, a goldsmith, originally from Norwich, his wife and 5 children (a son (11) and 5 daughters aged 10, 9, 7, 5 and 1) lived in the larger part of the house. But 3 rooms were rented separately by Thomas and Florence Smith.

1901 – Just one family living here again. Head of the household is Alfred Baker, who 10 years earlier lived next door at No 82 with his mother and sisters. Now he is married with a daughter, Myra, aged 9, and the family has a servant living in, so must have been quite well off. He worked from home as a Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

1911 – The house was still the office for recording Births, Marriages and Deaths, but the Registrar is now Mr Followes. His wife is dead, and his eldest daughter Elsie (19) works packaging medicines. His other 4 children were still at school. They have a servant who comes in by day, and they occupy 6 rooms in the house. The other 3 rooms are let by Margaret Edsall, a widow of 35 with an 11-year-old son and a daughter of 8. Mrs Edsall looks after an invalid at home, perhaps one of her children.

So an interesting range of people have lived at No 84 – we’ll keep you posted if we find out any more about any of them.

You can search the census for your own ancestors at Ancestry.co.uk

Roz Sherris, Museum of London

The weather forecast was predicting a chance of rain or even thunderstorms for today, but thankfully this did not happen. It was in fact the polar opposite, another glorious summer’s day at the corner of Waite Street and Trafalgar Avenue. Two groups of students studying English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) based at Southwark College joined us today, and from the very beginning of the sessions they were fascinated to hear about the changes in the local area and landscape over the last 250 years. The earliest maps show ‘Kent Street’ (present day Old Kent Road) dotted with large private houses surrounded by open fields whilst later maps record the rapid development of the area as a result of construction of the Surrey Canal (1801-11), the many local productive factories and modern depictions of the park after the damage from World War Two.    

Excavations into No. 84 Trafalgar Avenue continued today; the dividing wall with the neighbouring property was exposed and the basement coal cellar at the front of the house was very enthusiastically excavated and exposed. The students had never taken part in any type of archaeological excavation before, but instinctively understood the value of the project and how the conclusions drawn can lead to a fuller picture of local, and therefore London’s, history. To quote one of the group “I really enjoyed everything because it is the first time I have done this”.

The project also means a great deal to the local community, having spoken to many of them personally over the last few days. Many more slates, bricks and tiles were found as well as fragments of plates, cups and iron nails. We are able to gain an understanding of the everyday objects used in the house during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Every day more objects from the house are revealed, along with the structure of the house. To my mind, the most mysterious and interesting object was found during the morning session and it will need more identification to confirm its use. My first instinct is that it is a letter key from a typewriter probably used inside the house.

The finds washing provided some much sought after shade from the midday sun in the exposed trench, and even people using the park were torn between resting in the shade or helping wash the finds! Finds washing is important for later identification and analysis of all the artefacts, especially the bricks, tiles and pottery.

I hope that the great weather lasts until the end of next week.

Dan Nesbitt, Museum of London

See our Flickr photostream for more photos from Day 5 at Burgess Park