An Early Saxon wooden platform on the River Lea at Edmonton, London

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of excavations at Glover Drive, Edmonton, at a site located on the west side of the Lea Valley. In the past the valley comprised a spread of shifting channels, most of which are now silted and buried. Excavations within the floodplain revealed a sequence of deposits relating to former channels. These provided evidence for the past environment, anthropogenic activities and management of the landscape from the Mesolithic period to the present. An unusual timber platform and two roundwood stake-built structures, dated by dendrochronology to shortly after AD 472, were found within a small channel on the edge of a sand bank in a backwater fen area. A series of ditches on the higher ground to the west of the structures were also tentatively dated to the Early Saxon period. The timber structures were probably short-lived as the site became inundated, leading to the wooden structures and ditches being buried beneath thick alluvial clay. The Early Saxon wooden platform is the first of its kind to be excavated, recorded and dated in England and the article discusses its possible function, placing it into its temporal and spatial context.