69925 shoes&pattens5

135

Appendix 1

and evidence from the immediately subse-quent deposits (see below) suggests that this must, in fact, be very close to the actual datę of construction.

(iv) The finał group is by far the largest (109 registered shoes), but preservation was only moderate and there are very few complete shoes. It came from the foreshore and deposits in front of the revetment described above, and a sequence of 13 coins, including one from the last year of Henry V’s reign, gives a terminus post quem of 1422. A large pottery assemblage, similar to that from Trig Lane G15 (see above), confirms this generał dating.

Seal House, 106-8 Upper Thames Street, EC4, 1974 (SH 74; Fig. 165.8)

A long narrow trench, never morę than 3 m wide, revealed three successive 12th- and 13th-century timber revetments, and the dumps behind a fourth (Waterfronts I-IV). Behind these lay a series of associated buildings (Schofield 1975). Groups of footwear were recovered from each reclamation deposit but, owing to the limited scalę of the excavation, were only very smali.

(i)    A datę of c.1140 is proposed for the earliest group (8 registered shoes), because dendro-chronology has shown that timbers from the associated revetment were felled between the years 1133 and 1149. The deposit was apparently contaminated with a smali amount of intrusive 13th-century pottery, but nonę of the shoes seem to be of so late a datę.

(ii)    The second group consists of 10 registered shoes, all in very bad condition. A datę of c.1170 is likely for their deposition, sińce den-drochronology has given a rangę of 1163-92 for timbers from the revetment.

(iii)    The third group is one of the most important from the whole London waterfront, because although quite smali (21 registered shoes) it contains a high proportion of well-preserved complete shoes, including several types not found on other sites. Dendroćhronology suggests a datę of c.1210: a timber from the revetment gives a terminus post quem of 1193, and timbers from a drain cut through the bank some time after its construction give an esti-mated terminus antę quem of 1220.

(iv) The latest group (9 registered shoes) came from deposits for which pottery provides the only dating evidence; c.1250 seems most likely.

Billingsgate Lorry Park, Lower Thames Street, EC4, 1982 (BIG 82 (excavation); BWB 83 (watching-brief); Fig. 165.9)

Excavation covering 550 sq m showed that the area was first developed in the lOth or llth cen-turies with the building of a stave-fronted clay bank which also revetted a smali inlet. The bank was refurbished several times. Thereafter land was steadily reclaimed with timber revetments throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, but the ratę of progress sometimes varied in accordance with the division between St Botolph’s Wharf on the west and a row of private tenements on the east (Periods VII—XII). Behind the riverfront lay an undercroft and the church of St Botolph and, across a lane to the east, a series of commercial buildings which extended into the post-medieval period.

During the excavation up to a quarter of the soil in the reclamation deposits was finely sieved in order to recover environmental remains and smali finds; and sińce not a single shoe was found by this process it seems certain that very nearly all the shoes originally present on the site were actually recovered. It is unfortunate, therefore, that with a few exceptions - all from the 13th-century deposits - they were poorly preserved and seem already to have been fragmentary when they were discarded. For present purposes they have been divided roughly into four groups.

(i)    The earliest (Period VII), just 13 registered shoes, probably dates to c.1150 or a little later. Dendroćhronology has shown that three timbers from the associated revetment were felled between the years 1144 and 1183 and the large pottery assemblage may be dated broadly to the mid/late 12th century.

(ii)    The second group (Period VIII) consists of as many as 28 registered shoes, but all are very fragmentary. A datę of c. 1185 is suggeśted by the fmding of a coin of Henry II (1180-9) and by the datę of the following revetment (q.v.).

(iii)    The third group, broadly datable to the first half of the 13th century, contains a total of 38 registered shoes from a series of three deposits which either accumulated in front of a