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Victorian cobbled street discovered on Olympic Park

19 May 2008

Cobbled street at Temple Mills
An archaeologist cleans the 150-year-old cobbled street unearthed on the VeloPark site

A cobbled street thought to be over 150 years old has been found by archaeologists on the site of the London 2012 VeloPark.

The area is being investigated because it is the site of a Knights Templar water mill built between 1185 and 1278.

It is believed 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. The area has since been covered by thousands of tonnes of rubbish and rubble over the last 150 years, before being unearthed by archaeologists.

The Knights Templar - or the Order of the Temple - was founded after the First Crusade of 1096. They ensured the safe passage of the many Europeans who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem after its conquest. They were one of the most famous Western Christian military orders and existed for approximately two centuries in the Middle Ages.

Museum of London archaeologists will carefully dig up the cobbles so they can be reused by parkland designers elsewhere in the Olympic Park.

Read the full media release

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