Archive for the 'Projects' Category

Wrecks on the Seabed: Ecology

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Tom Goskar
on February 6, 2008
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Ever wondered about the plants and animals that live on shipwrecks? What sorts of effects do these critters have on archaeological remains? Can the types of flora and fauna that chose to colonise a particular wreck tell us anything about the stability of the site, for example?

Condenser Resident

These are some of the questions that Wessex Archaeology hopes to answer in the exciting new ‘Wrecks: Ecology’ project.

The project will investigate whether archaeological information from wrecks can also provide information about the plants and animals that inhabit them, and from this, say something about the environmental processes at work off the East Sussex coast.

Understanding the ecology of wrecks will improve the management, conservation and monitoring of these heritage sites. It will also improve archaeologists’ ability, when considering seabed developments, to better assess their potential positive and negative impacts on historical wrecks.

Visit the project website for more information.

The ‘Wrecks: Ecology’ project is funded by the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) through English Heritage.

Lost at sea: New study of plane crash sites

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Tom Goskar
on October 4, 2007
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Thousands of planes crashed into the sea around Britain, many during WWII. At the time the planes and many of their crew were presumed to be lost for ever. But today, more and more are being found, by divers; and increasingly as a result of dredging for sand and gravel.

Part of a German saddle drum magazine for a MG15 machine-gun from a crash site off the Suffolk coast, probably of a Henkel He. 111 bomber.

The crash sites of military aeroplanes are given automatic protection under the 1986 Protection of Military Remains Act, meaning they should not be disturbed. The problem is that the location of the great majority of crash sites at sea is not known. Even known shipwreck sites have, on closer examination, recently been proved to be of aeroplanes

Around 20% of the sand and gravel used for construction in England and Wales is gathered by dredging out at sea. One unexpected result of a recent scheme for dredgers to report archaeological finds has been the routine discovery of plane crash sites, sometimes with human remains.

Euan McNeill of Wessex Archaeology explained ’staff working for aggregate companies on board the dredgers and on the wharves where the sand and gravel is processed have been given help to identify archaeological finds so they know when to call the archaeologists. A web based reporting system means that there is prompt expert feedback. Even when finds are only identified on the wharves it is still possible to track back where the gravel was dredged from.’ Planes identified this way include a Fleet Air Arm Supermarine Attacker, what is either an American B-25 or P-51 bomber, and a German Junkers JU-88 bomber.

One of our British Marine Aggregates Producers Association (BMAPA) Awareness Programme sessions. The object is part of a Supermarine Attacker from off the Sussex coast. Photograph Elaine A. Wakefield. Wessex Archaeology.

When such discoveries are made, the marine aggregate operators follow a protocol that allows an Exclusion Zone to be set up around the site and dredging stops there. The possible presence of the remains of the crew and passengers and also unexploded munitions are assessed. This can put large areas of the seabed that are otherwise suitable for dredging out of bounds until further work can be done to see if the crash site can be found.’

McNeill added ‘Many families today are still touched by this issue. It represents a challenge, both ethical and logistical, for the marine aggregate industry and heritage professionals.’

As preliminary study of the issue by Wessex Archaeology has been commissioned by English Heritage, funded through the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund.

The first phase of this study is already underway. Wessex Archaeology are asking individuals and organisations with records or specialist knowledge of aircraft crash sites or losses at sea to come forward and tell them what information they have and why they think that aircraft crash sites at sea are important. The deadline for this stage of the project is Friday November 30th, 2007.

Visit the Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea project website to find out more.

Historic pottery found in River at Barnstaple

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Tom Goskar
on April 3, 2007
in Discoveries and Projects
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Marine archaeologists are used to working on sandbanks, but usually on their own. At Barnstaple in north Devon they were joined by local enthusiasts to track down buried evidence from the town’s historic pottery industry.
A new road bridge is being built over the River Taw at Barnstaple. The building works have caused changes in the flow of the river which caused part of a sandbank being scoured away. This revealed a large quantity of 17th pottery that had lain buried beneath the sand.

Barnstaple was an important centre for pottery manufacture from the medieval period until recent times. Large quantities of the attractive, decorated, pottery were exported to North America in colonial times. The sandbank in the Taw lies not far from one of the main potteries in Barnstaple and it seems likely that much of the material came from there.

Volunteers searching for pottery

Devon County Council asked Wessex Archaeology to undertake the survey, co-ordinating the work of the local enthusiasts who made the discovery. Volunteers and professionals worked together to make a careful record of the finds.

Some of the pots are shapes that have not been seen before. They were either new styles that did not catch on, or were difficult to make. Other finds are what are called wasters; damaged during firing and thrown away.
It seems that the potters threw the wasters into the River Taw where they were washed downstream before coming to rest in the sandbank.

As well as the 17th century pottery there was also pottery of medieval date, some 300-400 years older, which was also made in Barnstaple.

Local enthusiast Mike Palmer had been combing the sandbank for months, and his local knowledge and experience was a great help. Margaret Bunyard of Wessex Archaeology said ‘we are used to working in conditions like these, and often work with the public, but we haven’t done both at the same time before!’

The volunteers spent three days combing the site for pottery, then washed and marked their finds. John Allan of Exeter Archaeology, who is an expert on pottery from North Devon is writing a report on the pottery before it goes on display at the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon.

Washing finds

Kew Bridge House, London

Published
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Tom Goskar
on March 5, 2007
in Projects
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Before work starts on a new building, archaeological excavations are revealing that it has a rich - and royal - heritage. Trial work at Kew Bridge House found the remains of several buildings dating from the 17th century onwards as well as finds from the Middle Ages. Now, following the demolition of a modern office block, excavations are exploring these buildings and exploring what went on at the site in the Middle Ages.

The site at Kew Bridge

In 1747 the famous map maker John Rocque illustrated an ‘L’ shaped building on the eastern edge of the site. This building was extended in the late 18th and 19th centuries and eventually used as a malthouse, which has royal connections.

The excavations have found the remains of this building to which a wing was later added. The foundations from an earlier, late 17th or early 18th century, building, were found underneath.

The earliest activity on the site is not, though, recorded by history. The excavations have confirmed the hints of medieval activity. Pits and ditches have been found and it is thought that most of these will be medieval in date. The ditches may be from field systems lying to the east of the medieval town of Brentford and next to the River Thames.

Malt was used in making beer. The malthouse seems to have belonged to the Royal Brewery based in Brentford High Street. Many bottles and bottle tops with the Brewery’s crest have been found. At first the brewery, which dates back to the 18th century, was called the Red Lion Brewery. Its royal connection and its new name - the Royal Brewery - came about in 1828 after King William IV visited it and asked for its name to be changed.

The malthouse went out of use in the early 20th century, when the main buildings were demolished and their cellars filled in with rubbish. After that, a modern office block was built. The new development opens another chapter in the long and varied history of Kew Bridge House.

Credits
St George West London Limited commissioned CgMs Consulting and Wessex Archaeology to do the archaeological work for them. The excavations are being monitored by the Greater London Archaeology Advisory Service of English Heritage on behalf of the Council.

The Wreck Of The Troopship ss Mendi

Published
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Tom Goskar
on February 19, 2007
in Projects
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Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by English Heritage in December 2006 to undertake an initial desk-based appraisal of the wreck of the troopship ss Mendi. The Mendi was a British troopship carrying non-combatant black labourers from South Africa to France when it sank with huge loss of life after a collision with another vessel in the English Channel, south of the Isle of Wight in February 1917.

Photograph of the ss Mendi, courtesy of the South African Navy
Photograph of the ss Mendi, courtesy of the South African Navy.

The wreck of the Mendi is more than just a tragic maritime accident. It is also a monument to a rare tangible link, both in the UK and in South Africa, with the now obscure and generally forgotten system of ‘native’ labour contingents used by the British Army, during World War I.

The aim of the current project is to investigate the issues and areas of potential historical, archaeological, social and political interest associated with this wreck. It will then look beyond the wreck and the event, to consider the wider social and political context of the loss of the Mendi, and consider why this particular wreck is of special international importance.

The project will identify a range of areas for potential future research, and serve as the basis for a possible non-intrusive survey of the wreck itself in the near future.

Visit the ss Mendi project website for further information.