The Early River Thames The Iron Age and

The Early River Thames: The Iron Age and Before Jon Cotton

‘Twenty bridges from Tower to Kew (Twenty bridges or twenty-two) Wanted to know what the river knew For they were young, and the Thames was old, And this is the tale that the River told. . . ’

To Blackewall. We into Johnson’s house … where he tells us … that in digging his late Docke, he did 12 foot under ground find perfect trees over-covered with earth … Samuel Pepys, Diary, 22 September 1665

To Blackewall. We into Johnson’s house … where he tells us … that in digging his late Docke, he did 12 foot under ground find perfect trees over-covered with earth … Samuel Pepys, Diary, 22 September 1665

‘He who drinks a tumbler of London water, has literally in his stomach more animated beings than there are Men, Women and Children on the face of the Globe. ’ Rev Sydney Smith, 1834

‘He who drinks a tumbler of London water, has literally in his stomach more animated beings than there are Men, Women and Children on the face of the Globe. ’ Rev Sydney Smith, 1834

Sceaceres byrig (OE): ‘the robbers fort’

‘Was Woolwich the London of the Middle Iron Age? ’

‘John Ruge of Isleworth, aforesaid, shoemaker found one torc of gold within that demesne weighing 50 shillings sterling which is called Treasure trove …’ Parchment roll of a view of frankpledge held at Isleworth on Monday 19 October 1467

• Spoils of war • Boundary markers • Objects accompanying the dead • Gifts to the supernatural • Tournaments of value (‘potlatch’) • Disposal of powerful or tainted objects • Placating elemental forces

Tamesa and *Plowonida …

• 1099: ‘the sea flood sprang up to such a height … as no man remembered that it ever did before’ Anglo Saxon Chronicle • 1242: ‘the Thames overflowing the banks at Lambhithe, drowned houses and fields by the space of six miles …’ John Stow • 1663: ‘There was last night the greatest tide that ever was remembered … all Whitehall having been drowned’ Samuel Pepys • 1877: ‘The Thames has risen to such a height that the ground floor of Eel Pie Island Hotel is under water, and the pigs have to be kept in an upstairs bedroom’ Middlesex Chronicle • 1928: 14 people drown and 4000 are made homeless as the riverside embankment is breached at Lambeth

• • • Shaper of landscape Provider of resources Artery of movement Barrier and boundary Sacred stream