A cobbled street over 150 years old unearthed by archaeologists investigating the site of a 12th century Knights Templar mill on the edge of the London 2012 VeloPark site is to be reused in the Olympic Park design.

The Museum of London Archaeological Services and Pre-Construct Archaeology team believe the street may be part of the original Temple Mills lane, in the western area of a more recent mill complex that was demolished in 1854 before being covered by thousands of tonnes of rubbish and rubble over the last 150 years.


Once recorded by the Museum of London archaeologists the cobbles will be carefully dug up and stockpiled so they can be reused by parkland designers in the Olympic Park being created for the Games and legacy, which will be the largest new urban park in the UK since the Victorian era.

Archaeologists will now begin digging deeper to search for evidence of the original Knights Templar mill, known as Temple Mills, which started the industrialisation of the Lea Valley.

The archaeological investigations are part of the ODA's work to clear and clean the 2.5 kilometre squared Olympic Park, much of it contaminated by its industrial past, to build the venues and parklands for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and legacy.

To prepare for the construction of the VeloPark sorting machines have been sifting through 70,000 tonnes of landfill on the site so that it can recycled or reused.

(JM/NS)