Cheam has been known as a source of medieval pottery since 1923, when local architect C.J. Marshall excavated a kiln and waster pottery at Parkside. In 1969, excavations in the High Street revealed two more kilns and more wasters. Excavations in 1978–80 in the garden of Whitehall (a 16th-century timber-framed house) revealed large quantities of pottery and kiln fragments, thought to be from the nearby Parkside kiln, but possibly from an undiscovered kiln. The Parkside kiln was published in 1924, and the 1969 kilns in 1982. The Whitehall material remained unstudied until 2010.