Northern Green, Westminster Abbey - Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results

Wessex Archaeology

The Northern Green, lying adjacent to the nave, is part of a World Heritage Site encompassing Westminster Abbey, Westminster Palace (the Houses of Parliament) and St Margaret’s Church. In the winter of 1869/70, groundworks were undertaken by Henry Poole, the Abbey mason, on the north side of the Abbey. They revealed a re-used Roman stone sarcophagus, other medieval burials and a series of wall footings forming an Lshaped
structure considered to represent several different phases of construction and a number of separate buildings. These perhaps included a mid 13th century sacristy ordered by Henry III and various prebendal houses and tenements known to have stood on the site from the mid 16th century until their demolition in 1737.

The evaluation aimed to further investigate these remains. Fieldwork consisted of five machine-excavated trial trenches as well as geophysical and topographic surveys. The trenches examined salient features of the Lshaped structure. The use of a distinctive mortar was found to unify and characterise all elements of this structure,
showing it to be of a single phase of construction, although at the eastern end at least, its foundations were extensively incorporated into those of the later, mid 16th century buildings.

Six in situ burials were discovered, as well as significant quantities of redeposited human bone. A sample of bone from one burial, morphologically similar to, and on the same alignment as, two others identified by Poole, was radiocarbon dated to Cal. AD 1025 – 1155, and the alignment of these three chalk block-lined graves, at odds with that of the present Abbey, may provide some indication of the previously unknown orientation of the mid 11th century abbey constructed by Edward the Confessor. Although not independently dated, the other in situ burials share their alignment with that of the present Abbey, and are likely to be of 13th century date.

Although the Victorian works, and the subsequent insertion of numerous services have clearly had a significant impact on the archaeological remains, the Time Team evaluation successfully demonstrated their extent, character and condition, showing that substantial stratified remains of medieval and post-medieval date do survive below the Northern Green.