Notices of Archæological PublicationsReviews

A discussion of specialized industries in later prehistoric Britain is presented, with some reference to regional examples from Europe. The subject is tackled by discussing what we mean by industrial specialization with general examples taken from pottery studies and an exotic material, glass. The location of specialized industries, particularly in Britain, is discussed focusing specifically on iron, copper-alloy and the glass industries, their scale, how the industries are sometimes associated with each other and the extent to which they occur in the various forms of oppida, hillforts and smaller scale settlements. The evidence suggests that during the late Iron Age in Britain the larger scale (sometimes more prestigious) industries are located in small settlements. The role of artisans is considered and whether they were peripatetic, or tied to a settlement, depending on the nature of their skills. Using scientific analysis a model for the iron age glass industry is given. All of this is discussed in the context of changing socio-economic contexts, at a time when society was increasingly developing urban characteristics, particularly in Europe. No single fully encompassing model can be provided for the complex developments noted in later prehistoric industries.     

Notice of the Proceedings at the Monthly Meetings of the Archæological Institute

The English glass industry adopted coal as a fuel at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the consequent reduction in costs enabling sales and production to increase. From a minor forest industry, glass manufacture became an important part of the coalfield economy, with innovative furnace structures forming striking features in the eighteenth-century urban landscape. Recent archaeological investigation has shown that glass-works have left significant survivals on subsequently redeveloped sites, in the form of underground flues and furnace bases, and residues from processes.     

Proceedings at Meetings of the Royal Archæological Institute February 5, 1885

Excavation of the Franciscan friary church at Hartlepool revealed an apparent two phase stone construction, preceded by an aisled timber building. An initial long narrow church of c.1240 was extended by the addition of a nave and north aisle. An extensive series of burials from beneath the church floor and from the friary burial ground provides useful pathological information, whilst a range of worked stone and other building materials, together with evidence for window manufacture, provides information on the fabric of the building. After the Dissolution the friary site was occupied by a mansion.     

Proceedings at Meetings of the Royal Archæological Institute,June 4th, 1885

This is the report of three small research excavations at Waltham Abbey. Each was designed to answer specific questions about the destroyed east end of the Collegiate Church and the relation to it of the Augustinian extensions. Excavation in 1984 was across the chancel of the Collegiate Church which became the Augustinian central nave. In 1986 an area around the Collegiate ambulatory was dug and, in 1987, this was extended to establish the geometry of the apse.

In the area excavated there were no remains of a church which might pre-date the apse-and- ambulatory form. The eastern walls were taken down when the building was extended as part of the Augustinian re-foundation of 1177. Continuous but irregular Collegiate pier foundations were seen and four buttress projections, to the wall foundations, suggest that the aisles and ambulatory had been vaulted. The Collegiate chancel pier foundations seem to have been re-used and even the piers themselves appear to have been incorporated into the Augustinian design. Two new pier foundations for the Augustinian central nave were seen. This nave was wider than the adjacent chancel which caused problems of alignment. Part of the Augustinian north-aisle tiled pavement survived. A previously discovered curved foundation is now known to be that of a small ‘bubble’ chapel which was added between two adjacent buttresses of the Collegiate Church.

As a result of the excavations it is possible to predict the form of the second Collegiate church, of Romanesque style, and to suggest it was begun in the late eleventh century. To the west of the present excavations a much more modest apsidal end is still possible for Harold's original Collegiate Church dedicated c. 1060; no physical evidence of this church has been established with certainty but some possibilities are mentioned.

There is a full documentary survey and a discussion of parallels for the apse-and-ambulatory east end with Waltham having features in common with churches of other secular houses. Details are given of mortar analysis and of stonework which shows some clear parallels with the church begun at Durham c. 1095. There is a record of all previous work on the monastic site.