Abstract: |
The Essex County Council Field Archaeology Unit (ECC FAU) carried out an archaeological investigation on behalf of M and P Dunn Ltd on the site of a residential development on land immediately to the west of Chapel Field House, High Easter, Essex. . The evaluation involved the excavation of seven trial trenches within the footprints of the new houses and associated access road and garages. Trenches 1, 2, and 3 in the north of the development area, and trench 7 in the south-east, located only natural and modern features. However, trenches 4, 5 and 6 in the south and south-west of the area located significant late medieval and post-medieval features, comprising a well, pits and a large ditch, near the road frontage. Excavation revealed a well dating to the mid-13th to 14th centuries, cut by a large boundary ditch aligned east-west, with associated rubbish pits, all dating to the 15th to 16th/17th centuries. The ditch would most likely have continued eastwards to the rear of Tye Cottage, a surviving 14th-century timber-framed building immediately to the east of Chapel Field House. The archaeological evidence suggests a contrast in activity on either side of the boundary ditch, which separated the immediate road-side area from open farmland to the north. Residual Late Iron Age and Roman finds suggest nearby occupation. There are very few features or deposits of post-medieval or modern date, and this absence suggests that the site had been open land, either as an orchard or a field, for some time. The results of the investigation suggest that further medieval remains should survive in the general area of the road frontage outside the footprints of the houses. |