Gill Clegg’s booklet Archaeology in Hounslow provides a good general introduction to archaeology in the London Borough of Hounslow. In the 1970s and ’80s the West London Field Group, of which she was a member, included our area and was based in Brentford. Some of their archives are now at Gunnersbury.
From the early 1990s new commercial excavation units took over archaeological work in our area and most of their finds eventually find their way to The Museum of London. The Museum holds most of the excavation archives for our area as well as the antiquities collected by Thomas Layton of Brentford in the 19th century. Our local museum at Gunnersbury Park also holds some archaeological material from Brentford and Chiswick, including chance finds and a small number of items from Layton’s collection.
Search the Museum of London collection. The Museum of London also has an Archaeological Archive & Study Centre
A number of reports of excavations in Brentford & Chiswick appear in the London Archaeologist; forty years’ articles from this journal have been digitised. You can quickly search the indices then download specific articles from each volume or order back numbers of more recent issues
A number of resources relating to the archaeology of Brentford, created by MOLA during the redevelopment of the town, are available. There is a StoryMap about the Archaeology of Brentford – High Street South. Two webinars have been uploaded to YouTube: The Archaeology of Brentford Waterside and The Archaeology of St Lawrence’s Church. MOLA has also devised a teachers’ resource pack for Primary Schools with an animation called 2,000 years of Brentford history:
Explore Thomas Layton’s collection
Visit the Thames Discovery Programme’s website and blog – this HLF-funded community project which focusses on the tidal Thames.
See the following articles on this site:
Archaeology in West London 1981-2
Some Recent West London Archaeology 1979-80
West London Archaeology 1980-81
Archaeological Excavations at Brentford Lock 2001
Recent local digs at Chiswick House and beside Kew Bridge
Accidental Archaeology in Grove Park, 2002
