The Lower Lea Valley has been more or less continuously occupied since the end of the last Ice Age c 12,000 years ago. Traces of human activity from all periods have been found in the ground: from Neolithic farms to Roman roads, from Saxon fish ponds to medieval monasteries. For this reason most of the Lower Lea Valley is a designated Archaeological Priority Area. In addition the boroughs contain many historic structures, Listed Buildings, and Conservation Areas - with a particular wealth of standing remains from London’s Industrial heritage: factories, warehouses, gasworks, railways, canals, bridges, etc.

Taking samples from alluvial silts

Prehistoric archaeology, in particular, is likely to be found within the ‘natural’ Quaternary stratigraphy or alluvium - the natural silt deposits, several metres thick, in ancient stream beds of the Lea Valley. Thus there is neither a straightforward ‘level of natural’, which can be used as a lower cut-off level for archaeological potential, or a ‘depth of archaeological deposit’ that can be used when (historic period) archaeological deposits and features merely sit above, or are cut into, the ‘natural strata’.

Today, the stretch of the Lea Valley which has received planning consent for redevelopment as an Olympic Park is a particularly urban landscape, the result of centuries of use and change, comprising a complex network of canals and canalized rivers, roads and railways, interspersed with former industrial sites, derelict land, warehouses, and light industry.