Lincoln's Inn, London
First screened 8 March 2009
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MAPCO: Map And Plan Collection Online
http://archivemaps.com
Saxon London
Lincoln's Inn site director Hedley Swain didn't have much success in tracking down evidence of Saxon London, despite diverting half of Time Team's diggers from Lincoln's Inn itself into the adjacent Lincoln's Inn Fields in an attempt to do so. You can find out more about the medieval era when the bishop's palace Time Team was looking for in Lincoln's Inn was built on our extensive web pages dedicated to this period. But here is a selection of further reading and other websites providing additional information about Saxon London – 'a trading centre for many nations who visit it by land and sea', as it was described by the Venerable Bede in the early 8th century.
Other websites
'Saxon London in a tale of two cities', British Archaeology No 44, May 1999
www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba44/ba44regs.html
In this, his second in a series of articles on London for the Council of British Archaeology's magazine British Archaeology in 1999, John Schofield, who worked with Time Team on the Lincoln's Inn programme, describes new evidence for the two Saxon towns that grew up in what is now central London. One was the 7th- to 8th-century trading settlement of Lundenwic that developed to the west of the old Roman city walls 'around the river bank south and west to Westminster, and north to present-day Oxford Street'. The other is the late Saxon reoccupation of Lundenburh within the Roman city walls that took place under King Alfred in the 9th century. Schofield describes what is known about the Saxon occupation that by 1000 had turned London into 'the largest and most important city in England, though not yet the capital'.
Collections: Anglo-Saxon London
www.museumoflondon.org.uk/
English/Collections/Onlineresources/RWWC/
themes/1295/1287
The Museum of London's website includes details of a small selection of exhibits in its collection from the Anglo-Saxon period. These include a gold-covered saucer brooch, an early 6th-century gilded silver brooch, a silver penny from King Alfred's reign, a simple 6th-century brown pot and a small iron knife found on the shore of the Thames. Decorated on both sides with twisted silver and copper wires hammered into the blade, the knife has a silver plate with lettering that says 'OSMHND' on one side, which was probably the owner's name, Osmund.
Further reading
Middle Saxon London: Excavations at the Royal Opera House 1989-99 by Gordon Malcolm and David Bowsher with Robert Cowie, MoLAS Monograph 15 (Museum of London Archaeology Service, 2003) £26.95
The Royal Opera House is located in the heart of what was the Middle-Saxon settlement of Lundenwic, a flourishing centre for trade and manufacture from the 7th to 9th centuries. Urban redevelopment in 1996 included the largest excavation yet undertaken in the area, providing a wealth of information about the settlement, its inhabitants, their work and daily lives. This well illustrated publication reports on the results of the excavations, describes a sequence of occupation, and considers more general themes such as the relationship of the Middle-Saxon settlement to Roman Londinium, Saxon crafts and industry, the agricultural economy, trade, and demography. The discoveries included an 8th-century street plan, specialised industrial buildings, rubbish and debris from a jewellery workshop, evidence of ironworking and a 9th-century defensive ditch, which was probably a response to Viking attack, but failed to prevent the Viking occupation of Lundenwic in 871.
Early and Middle Saxon Rural Settlement in the London Region by Robert Cowie and Lyn Blackmore, MoLAS Monograph 41 (Museum of London Archaeology Service, 2008) £14.95
Until now the evidence for London's Early- and Middle-Saxon rural settlement and economy has received scant attention. This monograph provides a long-awaited overview of the subject, drawing on the results of six decades of archaeological fieldwork since the war, in addition to historical and place-name evidence.
Tatberht's Lundenwic: Archaeological excavations in Middle Saxon London by Jim Leary, Pre-Construct Archaeology Monograph 2 (2004) £16.95
During excavations at the National Portrait Gallery in London, a sheep bone was found inscribed with the name 'Tatberht'. This man may well have lived in a house at this location sometime during the 8th and 9th centuries. This well presented study aims to reconstruct the Lundenwic that Tatberht and his contemporaries would have known by focusing on the evidence produced during four major excavations (at 28-31 James Street, the Lyceum Theatre in Exeter Street, the National Portrait Gallery, Maiden Lane and Exchange Court). Jim Leary with contributors presents the evidence from each site in turn, looking at the archaeological sequence in each area and the type of finds, such as pottery, loom weights, slag, metalwork, environmental remains, human bone and the occasional coin as well as a group of charred honeybees. One technical chapter by Richard Hughes looks in detail at the wattle and daub remains from the National Portrait Gallery. This evidence is then discussed in a synthetic discussion in which Jim Leary considers the evolving shape, its industry, animals and daily life of Tatberht's Middle-Saxon London.
Saxon London (The Archaeology of London) by Alan G Vince (Batsford, 1990)
This is a summary of the development of thought on Saxon London and the methods used to study it. It combines archaeological evidence from London itself, the rest of England and historical sources in order to write the history of London from the Roman occupation to the Norman Conquest. Archaeological finds are used to illustrate the buildings and way of life of different groups living in or connected with London.
The Timetraveller's Guide to Saxon and Viking London by Joshua Doder (Watling Street Press, 2004) £3.95
One of a series of books that transport the reader to different eras of London's history. All contain quizzes and other interactive features, plus listings of relevant places to visit and things to do, and aim to be both highly entertaining for their readers and invaluable for schools. The book covers topics such as: The decline of London after the Romans scarpered; What did the new Lundenwic look like?; Viking invasion; What did people wear, how did they make a living?; The Battle of London Bridge. A sane (honest) guide to London's most confusing period – including an archaeological trail for present-day readers, some of the funniest names in English history, the markets, the slaves, the endless changes of power and the everyday life of an average confused Saxon Londoner.
Historic London maps
Anyone interested in the history and development of London will be interested in MAPCO (Map and Plan Collection Online), who helped Time Team with the Lincoln's Inn programme.
MAPCO: Map And Plan Collection Online
http://archivemaps.com/mapco/index.htm
MAPCO's aim is to provide genealogists, students and historians with free access to high-quality scans of rare and beautiful antique maps and views. The site displays a variety of highly collectable 18th- and 19th-century maps and plans of London and the British Isles, and also 19th-century maps and engravings relating to Australia. One of MAPCO's featured maps is a fabulous map of London from the time of William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I, dating from about 1560. This and other London maps can be found at: http://archivemaps.com/mapco/london.htm
Old London Maps
http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/index.html
Other old London maps and views of the city from the 16th to the 19th centuries are available on the Old London Maps website, which is committed to granting free access to scores of rare maps and images of London from the medieval period to the 18th and 19th centuries.