Syon House Celebrates with Museum of London

We were privileged to be invited to share Syon House’s celebratory evening along with the Museum of London and their guests. The evening showcases the Summer’s excavation, albeit with a few days to go before they finish for the year. This year the dig took place towards the boundary wall by the Duchess gate in a field with curious cows.

We gathered by the colonnade behind the house for drinks and canapes before moving to the central courtyard where Roy Stephenson from the Museum of London and Harvey Sheldon spoke about the dig. Hounslow’s Mayor Cllr Sachin Gupta was in attendance along with a large number of archaeologists including some in training and professionals from the Museum.

The dig, to the uninitiated looks like a large square hole in the ground with smaller holes in it. Without explanation, looking at it does not achieve much. We were lucky to have an excellent Museum of London finds specialist who enthusiastically explained the dig. A major, but unattractive find was a small part of Roman wall with cement underneath it which apparently is the first confirmed find of crafted Roman wall in Brentford. There was also a prehistoric fire pit barely a metre below the topsoil and rubbish pits from the Roman and medieval eras.

Museum of London Archaeologists will be publishing a book in September about the large scale digs that took place before the construction of Hilton Syon Park.