Page:VCH London 1.djvu/60

 A HISTORY OF LONDON more than one body," but they had been disturbed by the finders, and nothing else was recovered from the burial. The rough sketch accompanying the account shows that the ' small embossments ' on the lid were in the form of scallop shells, arranged almost exactly as Fig. 6. Some more bones were found during the excavations and it was supposed that a cemetery existed

Fig. 6. — Lbao Coffin-lid, Battersea Fields Fig. 7. — Lead Coffin-lid, Old Ford (Length, 60 in.) here in Roman or perhaps in later times, as the churchyard of St. Sepulchre seems once to have extended some distance north of the church." Another example of this ornament was found in Battersea Fields (now partly repre- sented by Battersea Park) in 1794 at a depth of 2 ft.; only one coffin (Fig. 6) was found, containing a skeleton, but three other bodies had been buried in the vicinity." The scallop pattern again occurs on three lead coffins (Figs. 7, 8) in the national collection, found in 1864 about 900 yds. west of East Ham Church.'" The Old Kent Road example has certain features not hitherto noticed in London, but is analogous to one found at Bexhill, near Sittingbourne, Kent." The former was discovered in 1 8 1 1, when the ground was opened for laying wooden water-pipes near the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb (Plan A, 46), just north-west of Bricklayers' Arms station, and a few feet from the bank that had formerly carried a quickset hedge along the side of the road.'* The lid was divided into five panels by the usual bead-and-reel moulding, the upper compartment Fig. 8. — Lead Coffin-lid, Old Ford (Length, 28 in.) " This is frequently noticed ; see above, p. 1 2. " Soc. Ant. MS. Minutes, vi, 2. " Jourtt. Brit. Arck. Assoc, ii, 300 ; Coll. Antiq. iii, 54, pi. xiv, fig. 2 (not 4). ^ Coll. Antiq. vii, pi. xix, figs. I-5 ; Arch. Joum. xxi, 93. " Coll. Antiq. vii, 183, 185 ; British Museum. ^ Arch, xvii, 333 ; Coll. Antij. iii, 54. 20