Excavation by T. Ennis, Plot K, Chelmsford Business Park, Springfield, Chelmsford, 2011 - EEX56257

The overburden was removed under archaeological supervision using a machine fitted with a flat-bladed bucket. The majority of the site was stripped, other than two around 31m diameter root protection zones around the two preserved oak trees. Potential archaeological features were cleaned, planned and hand excavated. From NRHE: An excavation was undertaken within the grounds of the former Springfield Lyons house, just north of a Bronze Age enclosed settlement, an Early Saxon cemetery and a Late Saxon settlement site excavated between 1981 and 1991. Those excavations also revealed the western side of a probable Neolithic causewayed enclosure, defined by a series of large pits that were demonstrated to extend across the eastern part of the current site (Plot K). Three newly-discovered pits were excavated on the projected line of the causewayed enclosure, along with the northern end of a pit that had been part-excavated during previous trenching in 1991. A small shallow pit of Neolithic date was located within the enclosure itself. A pronounced gap between the causeway pits towards the north-east corner of Plot K may indicate the position of an entranceway into the enclosure. Located within the arc of the Neolithic enclosure was the eastern half of a small roundhouse of Late Bronze Age date. Located c.70m north-east of the enclosed Late Bronze Age settlement, this is the only contemporary structure so far found outside of the enclosure. Two north-south aligned ditches were of Late Saxon date; one of them was possibly the southward continuation of a ditch found prior the development of Plots G and H, approximately 110m to the north and previously thought to have been of Late Bronze Age date. Another two north-south aligned ditches dated to the post-medieval period.