Early Days
Tottenham Marshes are on a flood plain of the River Lea and over a thousand years ago – when in its early untamed state – the land either side was true marshland, before giving way to dense forest. The forest itself was cut through by several streams coming from the west and south west and joining with the Lea, adding their additional water-loads to the regular flooding. Eventually, human settlements started shoring up the banks and cutting channels to control the flooding and the marshland was largely confined to the edges of the river. The forests were also cut back and the land became productive meadow and arable, although still vulnerable to occasional flooding.
Early settlement on this land is hard is identify. We can conjecture that the Neolithic people of Britain would have been attracted by the rivers and streams providing water, transport and fishing, as well as the woods for hunting, building and fire. However, their presence, overlaid by the greater numbers of later arrivals with their undoubtedly heavier footprint, has been obscured. Most will have been transitory, and we find no evidence of settlements. A Neolithic flint dagger from around 1900-1500 BC has been discovered in the Tottenham area, but with the absence of any pottery remains from this period we must conclude that this was more likely to have been left by people passing through rather than settlers.
The Romans also passed through Tottenham, building a road - later named by the Saxons as Ermine Street – that went from the City of London to Lincoln and the northern kingdoms. It cut through Tottenham to the west of the Lea and today we know it as the High Road. The Romans may also have farmed here, producing corn and hay, but any likely settlement would have been on the higher ground much further to the west. The Saxons were probably the first permanent settlers here, and it is generally agreed that Tottenham was named after a Saxon chief, Tota, with ham referring to a settlement.
Viking Invaders
We first find a reference to the River Lea in the 9th century Anglo Saxon Chronicle. This chronicle was started in the 9th century on the orders of King Alfred and continued until the middle of the 12th century. The 9th century was one of continuous battles between the Saxon Kings, most notably Alfred, King of Wessex, and the Viking Danes who invaded and pillaged – and eventually settled - the east coast from Northumberland to Kent. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 894 the Danes rowed up the river Lea from the Thames and built a fort on the river at either Ware or Hertford. Alfred then blocked their way out by making the river Lea impassable, whether by erecting fortifications further down or blocking the river is not clear, and the Danes were forced to abandon their fortification and their boats. In , the skeleton of an ancient boat was unearthed near the River Lea when the reservoirs were being dug leading to some conjecture that this might have been the remains of a Viking ship, although this is now thought to be unlikely. More interestingly, the 18th century Tottenham historian, William Robinson, asserted that the ‘works’ carried out by Alfred on the Lea to block the Dane’s escape led to the early draining of the marshes at Tottenham.
