Excavations in 2008 on the site of a proposed new prison at Belmarsh West, London Borough of Greenwich, found the heavily decayed remains of two superimposed Early Neolithic trackways. These structures, which are radiocarbon dated to the first quarter of the 4th millennium cal BC comprise some of the earliest structures yet encountered in the London Basin. The trackways were found towards the base of a peat sequence, immediately above the underlying Devensian gravels. The associated palaeoenvironmental record suggests that they were constructed in response to rising base levels, within a local floodplain environment dominated by alder carr, in order to maintain mobility across an expanding wetland landscape. The archaeological and geomorphological background to the excavations and a description of the results of the excavations are presented, with a particular emphasis on the Neolithic structures. The significance and wider context of the structures are examined through a consideration of their construction, wider palaeoenvironmental context, and the ways in which the structures can shed light on the nature of Early Neolithic subsistence strategies and land-use within the Thames floodplain.

Domain analysis has a well-documented history in peer reviewed academic literature; however there are few instances of its application to facilitate the assessment of system specific navigation risk. This paper details one example of a practical approach to domain analysis for a busy section of the River Thames in Central London. The results correlate well to known high risk collision areas on the river and help to quantify and corroborate expert opinion and local knowledge. However a number of conditions must be accounted for in undertaking a robust study such as the geography of the study site, the purpose and audience of the research, and the availability of data and its limitations.

European eels Anguilla anguilla from the rivers Thames and Test, in the south of England, were examined between 2000 and 2003 for infection with the swim-bladder nematode Anguillicola crassus. Since its introduction to Thames eels at tidal estuarine locations circa 1987, A. crassus has become established in non-tidal freshwater stretches upriver and data from these locations are reported for the first time. The prevalence of infection at Thames estuary locations was higher during 2000–2003 than for the period 1987–1992. By 2003, similar prevalences were observed at freshwater and estuarine locations, but infection intensities were significantly higher in freshwater. Eels from the river Test appear to have been recently colonized by A. crassus (circa 2000). Parasite population establishment within these eels was uncharacteristically slow during 2000–2001, with low prevalence and intensity of infection, and few gravid females during this period. By 2003, infection levels in Test eels were similar to those in Thames eels. The expansion of the A. crassus population in Test eels has occurred in the absence of the paratenic host ruffe Gymnocephalus cernuus, and at suboptimal pH for the survival and infectivity of free-living larvae. The epidemiology of A. crassus in Test eels demonstrates that transmission of A. crassus by ruffe is not required for high prevalence and intensity of infection in eels. However, the consistently low and atypical levels of infection in Test eels during 2000 and 2001 suggests that paratenic transmission by ruffe may provide a substantial contribution to the dynamics of A. crassus in eels in the early years following introduction, by facilitating the rapid increase in prevalence and intensity of A. crassus infection that typically occurs during this time.