City building firm finds the possible remains of medieval Thames river wall
STONE STRUCTURES DISCOVERED COULD BE 700 YEARS OLD
A COVENTRY building company has discovered possible remains of the medieval River Thames shoreline. The stone structures are likely be at least 700 years old.
Engineers from Concept Engineering have spent thousands of hours investigating and drilling boreholes as part of ongoing restoration work at the Houses of Parliament. During the project workers came across the remains, which mark the border of the age-old embankment, just a few metres below the surface of the river.
It is made from Kentish Ragstone, a hard grey limestone quarried from Kent that was also used in the construction of the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. The
Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) is now assessing the remains.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons said: “The Palace of Westminster is a treasure trove of history, and making sure this is properly conserved whilst also getting on with the vital job of restoring this unique place is a key priority.”
The work, as part of the Restoration and Renewal Programme, has involved drilling 70m (230ft) deep - deeper than the Elizabeth line - to assess ground conditions under the Houses of Parliament. Since the summer, groundsmen have drilled five boreholes and are set to drill another ten to 15 as work continues until the summer of 2023. This is the second time ancient remains of the River Thames has been discovered. Archaeologists located part of the medieval river wall in Black Rod’s Garden in Westminster in 2015. Medieval timber structures thought to represent waterfront revetments, with a wall that runs alongside the medieval location of the riverside, were uncovered.
When the Palace of Westminster, the formal name of the Houses of Parliament, was built in the 1800s, after many of the medieval buildings burned down, the land was reclaimed from the Thames to make the site bigger.
Roland Tillyer, an archaeologist from MOLA said: “We were expecting [stone structures] might be present in this area and the borehole in Chancellor’s Court may have encountered it. The first few metres of the borehole sequence was as expected, post medieval dump deposits, which are quite soft.
“But then at around 3.5m (11.5ft) we came across much harder material, including Kentish ragstone, mixed with a sandy mortar.” A spokesperson for the Restoration and Renewal Programme said archaeologists had been on-site for each of the boreholes to record any finds of historical significance.