Vol 55

30 Robert L Whyteheadold Roman city (shall we say) of St Peter's layside-by-side, essentially distinct from each other,with the Walbrook between them' (Wheeler1934, 301; Myres 1934; Wheeler 1934). Wheelerrelied heavily on William Page's study of earlyLondon, the only London history he appearsto have consulted, and one that consideredvery little outside the City walls (Page 1929).^Nevertheless he interpreted four loomweights,a round bottomed pot, and an Ipswich Warerimsherd with stamped decoration, from theSavoy, as probably derived from a sunken-flooredhut, and stated that: 'On general grounds it isunlikely that the Savoy hut stood alone. We maysuppose that the riverside strip of gravel whichlater bore a string of palaces between the Cityand Westminster was already occupied by groupsof huts or houses in Saxon times' (Wheeler 1935,141). The idea of farmsteads adjacent to theCity was reinforced by the EPNS Middlesex thatrendered the variants on Aldwych, from Vetusvicus (1199) to Adwych (1551) as 'The old dairyfarm' (Cover et al 1942, 166).Ivimey described Fabian's statement as 'remarkableinformation': 'A glimpse of the actualappearance of London in 981 ... though whatthe sources of his information were so longafter the event is not quite clear ... Perhaps — ifthis is not all merely so much nonsense — the"houseinge towards Westminstre" refers to theDanish settlement at Aldwych and the Saxonvillage of Charing'. He speculated what the stateof the City would have been at that time, andwhat traces of Roman London 'had survivedthe unhandy and uncivic Saxons' (Ivimey 1937,38-9). In the same year An Encyclopedia of Londondeveloped the concept of a Danish suburb,stating that Alfred the Great, having wrestedLondon from the Danes, 'allotted territoryfor their occupation outside the City' (Kent1937, 6). It cited Fleetwood, recorder to LordBurghley: 'who may have had some authority,now vanished, said that when the Danes weredriven out of England, those who had marriedEnglish women were ordered by Alfred the Greatto dwell between the Isle of Thorney and CaerLud (Ludgate) and there erected a place ofdevotion called "Ecclesia dementis Danorum"'(Strype 1720, vol 4, 113).Post-World War II, excavations in the Cityinitially raised hopes that Middle Saxon Londonmight yet be found there. Grimes's descriptionof 'hut-pits' at Cannon Street, Bucklersbury,and Addle Street demonstrated what carefulexcavation might reveal. Comparisons weredrawn with sunken-featured buildings at SuttonCourtenay (Oxon) and Bourton-on-the-Water(Glos), but the huts at Cannon Street at leasthad to be dated to the Late Saxon period, as theothers have been subsequently (Grimes 1968,153-60). Grimes asserted that the absence ofevidence for what he called 'the "lost" centuries',the 5th-6th centuries AD, was 'one of theoutstanding negative results of the ExcavationCouncil's work over more than sixteen years'.This 'appeared to corroborate the view thatLondon was indeed largely unoccupied', andraised a 'puzzling ... contradiction that itembodies with the situation in London ... asimplied by the records'. He speculated 'that thearea of early Saxon occupation was much lessextensive than has been thought' (Grimes 1968,153-4).Dolley's study of coin hoards from the Londonarea showed that those from the City are datedto the reign of Alfred or later; however he sawthe earlier coin hoards, including three from theimmediate vicinity of the City in the Strand area,as part of a string of hoards along the Thames(Dolley 1960, 41-3). He pointed to the apparentdistinction in Anglo-Saxon London 'as a wic aswell as a burh, a place of commerce as well as amilitary stronghold' (ibid, 45, with n 53, 50).Green's discovery of a Middle Saxon sunkenbuilding and subsequent timber hall in Whitehallwas added to the number of apparentfarms of that date identified along the Thames(Green 1963, 1004-7). Haslam pointed to thesimilarities between the Saxon ceramics found atthe Whitehall site and those found, redeposited,at Arundel House on the Strand. He suggestedthat from these finds, together with those fromthe Savoy and Whitehall: 'A pattern emerges...indecisive in its details, of a series of settlementsor farms situated at intervals along the dry ridgeforming the north bank of the river betweenthe City and Westminster' (Haslam 1975,221-2). Hurst's review of the evidence, in thelight of recent research on the Continent andat Winchester, posited a cathedral and royalcomplex 'around which were clustered scatteredthanes' establishments', probably in the vicinityof St Paul's. 'That settlement was by no meansconfined to the area of the Roman city is shownby the finding of Saxon farms at Arundel House,the Savoy and Whitehall which suggests a widelyscattered settlement along the Thames withsuitable access to the River'. He also pointed