A seat of the Bishops of London, Fulham Palace, in Bishop’s Park, began in 704AD in an area probably inhabited in prehistoric and Roman times. Due to the expense of maintaining the palace, in the 1970s the Church Commissioners, while retaining ownership, moved the Bishop out. A 30-year struggle to keep the buildings viable culminated in a successful Lottery bid which funded the restoration of some of the buildings - the palace is now open certain days of the week and there is a small museum – and a second bid is going in for Phase II. The original Saxon palace was probably a wooden building, rebuilt around the time of the Norman Conquest and possibly surrounded by a moat enclosing a much smaller area than did the later medieval moat, filled in the 1920s but originally enclosing 36 acres. In the 13thC the Palace was resited a short distance away and the present buildings date from the 15thC - the Great Hall’s roof timbers were dendrochronologically dated to 1494 - and other buildings were constructed over the subsequent 40 years. Just inside the gate a bridge, to be restored in Phase II, still crosses the former moat. An area beyond the palace called the Warren, now allotments, was probably the Bishops’ hunting park.

A voluntary group has carried out several archaeological investigations, firstly across the line of the moat near the river and in line with Fulham Road, which is possibly a former prehistoric trackway, then a Roman road (it meets the A4, the former Bath Road) and may have originally extended across the park to the river. Across the river, in line with Fulham Road, is The Platt in Putney beneath which lies a Roman road. So there may have been a ford. Lower and Upper Richmond Roads may also be Roman. Finds from the Thames nearby include a Roman sword found in the 1880s and now in the British Museum. Earthworks around the palace site may be older and a possible reason for the Vikings choosing to camp here in the 8thC: there is a tradition Vikings dug the moat. Before infilling the moat had been cleared out several times and is full of 1920s rubble, but the old bank thrown up from it contained Roman material: coins, women’s hairpins, pieces of bracelets, and an object identified as a piece of mercenary harness fitting, possible evidence for post-Roman period Saxon mercenaries. A late 4thC votive burial comprising the skulls of a horse and dog side by side pointed to another feature, a posthole still containing an 8-inch timber plate surrounded by flint nodules: a gatepost? Part of the river entrance of Fulham Road? There was also part of a gravel surface; a later dig inside the walled garden confirmed that, although rather churned up, the gravel surface seemed to continue, with more evidence of Roman activity such as ditches.

In a corner of the palace courtyard resistivity suggested banks and ditches, perhaps evidence for a smaller moated area around the original palace. Early layers are gone but a ditch contained medieval pottery, and burnt material suggesting a fire. Under the Tudor apartments, demolished in the mid-18C, the group found cellars and a tank dating to c1500 with re-used medieval material, plus a 13th-14thC hearth of tipped tiles. Although late Roman and early Saxon layers are lost, there were 4thC Roman deposits. Under Henry Compton’s garden - he was Bishop in the late 17th and early 18thC and imported plants from America – were postholes with gravel packing suggesting a building, a Roman ditch, Roman coins, part of a 4thC sandal with hobnails, Neolithic and Bronze Age material. Along Fulham High Street - former name Bury (‘fortification’) Street - there are still signs of a bank, and behind buildings backing onto the park 10 feet of made ground is full of silt from the moat, the bottom dating to about the 8thC. The buildings have had to be reinforced as they are threatening to subside into the moat.

Yvonne Masson