Watching brief by Essex County Council at Harveys, Pottery Lane, Castle Hedingham, 2007 - EEX54968

Essex County Council Field Archaeology Unit monitored the groundworks for the construction of a side extension and garage at Harveys, Pottery Lane, Castle Hedingham. Harveys is conjectured to lie between the inner and outer medieval town ditches. The side extension replaced an earlier extension that had been added to the east end of an existing small bungalow. The garage was constructed in the south-east corner of the surrounding garden. The groundworks were excavated by using a small mechanical excavator. The groundworks for the side extension comprised the excavation of an E-shaped arrangement of trenches. Each trench had vertical sides and was 0.6m wide and 1.2m deep. The trenches revealed 0.4m of topsoil above brownish yellow silt clay. Cut in to the clay were foundation cuts belonging to the existing bungalow and the former extension. The footprint of the new side extension was 5.6m x 8m. It is uncertain as to whether the brownish yellow silt clay represented made-ground or an undisturbed glacial deposit. The footprint of the garage cut garden topsoil and measured 5m x 5m. It was approximately 0.15m deep. The underlying deposit was not exposed. The monitoring identified no archaeological features or artefacts.