Excavations revealed aspects of the changing
environment of the floodplain of the Lower Lea Valley
from the Late Glacial to the early historic periods.
Evidence for land use mostly related to activity
along the western bank of a former stream. Wooden
revetments (the earliest dated one being Early Bronze
Age), ditches, gullies, pits, a droveway, land surfaces
and associated ‘midden-like’ deposits provided evidence
for seasonal or periodic use and, arguably, habitation,
dating principally from the Middle to Late Bronze Age.
The economy of the site was focused on stock rearing,
grazing and the exploitation of river resources. The
‘midden-like’ deposits, identified as interleaved layers of
silt, sand and gravel containing pottery, human and
animal bone, as well as flint and bone tools, and other
objects, may be compared with similar, more extensive
deposits from sites such as Runnymede Bridge, Surrey.
There was no evidence of further activity until the
Late Iron Age to early Romano-British period, when
a series of fish-traps, pits and a structure within an
enclosure indicate renewed, again possibly seasonal,
use of the area. An evaluation on the site of the former
Royal Ordnance Factory produced evidence for the
continuing importance of waterfront management in
this floodplain environment, in the form of the wooden revetment of another stream channel, radiocarbon
dated to the late or post-Roman period