Every month we feature two blogs written by volunteers, one describes an object in the Palace and one a plant from the Garden. It is a great way for us all to learn more about the Palace. If you would like to contribute there is no set format so please do send us your ideas!
Dig the History - An Excavation at Fulham Palace
In October 2017, an excavation was started in the grounds of Fulham Palace. Based on some geophysics results and remarks in the Palace records, it was thought that we might find a Tudor Dovecote in an area in front of the Palace. After initial machining we came down onto what appeared to be a destruction or rubble layer consisting mainly of bricks at first. Then we invited the local Brownies in to try their hand at archaeology and they found decorated plaster, looking a bit like this:
Decorated plaster resembling Tudor moulded plasterwork, found by local Brownies at Fulham Palace
This was interesting, as it resembled Tudor moulded plaster work found both indoors and also outside on for example, Henry VIII's palace of Nonsuch. Though it was quickly realised that this was a) later and b) interior, as we found beading which suggested interior work. Obviously at some stage there had been a change in fashion and the house had been modernised, the now redundant plasterwork buried in a dump in the garden.
The fact that there were bricks on the top of the layer made me wonder if we had discovered the remains of a more than usually fancy dovecote, but I think this theory can be discounted !
Plasterwork continued to emerge from the trenches for the next few days, mainly mouldings which might be found on ceilings or round windows and fireplaces, but one day some one found a face:
Plasterwork mask with a moulded face, thought to be the 'Green Man', found by an Archaeology Volunteer at Fulham Palace.
Earthy and jolly, it is the Green Man himself, the spirit of place, found carved in English Churches, and on Tudor furniture and interior decoration as decorative bosses. I was enchanted by this Mask, which had been found by someone else, I thought 'lucky them' and went back to my digging. I was using a mattock to clear back a layer, mainly of brick which was degraded and crumbling at the edges, when I saw familiar streaks of white and a roundish shape. I realised that the mattock was maybe not appropriate, so now I worked carefully round it with a trowel. I was delighted to see that I had uncovered another Green Man! (Although a bit chagrined to see what had happened to the tip of his nose).
A second 'Green Man' mask uncovered by Jan Drew herself!
I have puzzled over whether or not these two mouldings were different from each other. Certainly in the photograph they appear to be different, even allowing for the fact that one has had his nose foreshortened by digging. But I seem to remember that when they are side by side in front of you, the mouths are the same not different, must be a trick of the light! It was very exciting to come across such iconic pieces, so evocative of the era. Of course the plasterwork is fragile and needs different conservation techniques to ordinary stonework, it has to be wrapped in acid-free tissue to be archived, but it is amazing that something so fragile and vulnerable is going to be saved from posterity by Fulham Palace.
By Jan Drew, Archaeology Volunteer at Fulham Palace