Life and PhD and general priorities have interrupted plans to go and properly record the Greenwich riverwall inscription – I’m now thinking that RTI might be the best way to go, although the wooden brace in front of part of the text is somewhat inconvenient, and it also means acquiring some kit.

Riverwall badly in need of repair!

With news that the much-needed repairs to the riverwall are about to happen, I decided on today’s visit with the FROGs to have another good look at it in case it is scaffolded up or wintry weather rules out foreshore visits for a while.

The riverwall has been blasted with a pressure hose in preparation for the repairs, which has handily scrubbed off most of the weed.

One of my questions was whether there was any lettering to the left hand side of the left hand stone. As you can see in the photo below, although the surface is badly abraded, if you look along the stone it is possible to discern a line suggesting the traces of the feet of carved letters continue to the left.

However, looking at the stone square-on, these could not be seen at all. It is possible that RTI imaging might be able to give more detail here.

To the right the letters continue under a wooden brace. These have been cleaned off in the processes ahead of the wall repairs, which means we can now see an ‘o’ and an ‘e’ that weren’t visible before. The word is something like [-]O[-]E it could perhaps be ‘some’ at the middle letter looks a bit like an ‘m’. It is very difficult to photograph behind the brace – this is my best attempt.

Not much, but I’ve gleaned a little more information now, and I can do some desk and/or archive research this winter to try to locate when and where these stones came from.