Essex Archaeol Hist 30

Part of a Middle Bronze Age ditched enclosure, including a small sub-rectangular enclosure suggested to be a shrine and a short-lived thirteenth-century farmstead are reported. Replaces interim report 94/1346.

Three alternative views of the layout are considered.

The accounts of the descent of manors from owner to owner have been a feature of English County Histories since they were first written. Outside the Victoria County History, the systematic creation of such pieces of research is not much practised today. A test case is offered to support the contention that manorial descents are reference tools still of value in modern historiography.

Contains reports on chance finds, prehistoric to medieval, and projects carried out by the Section.

Several separately authored sections concerning work throughout the year.

An evaluation, within an archaeologically sensitive area of prehistoric and RB remains on the Thames Terrace gravels, revealed a pit containing worked flint and Mildenhall-style pottery. The discussion highlights the implications of the recent recognition that most evidence for Neolithic occupation will be found in the modern ploughsoil and/or at its interface with the subsoil. Two notes complete the article:

The first evidence of stratified medieval archaeology from this market town of 1253; because of the conservation area, opportunities for future work are likely to be few and probably small-scale. Pottery provided key dating evidence.

A site in the original northern bailey of Pleshey Castle (see also 89/783 and 98/1699): medieval pits and later features.