Site of Elmstead Market Post Office (EHER 34437)

A 17th/18th century or earlier timber framed house and Post Office with later alterations and additions. Now demolished. Evaluation and excavation in 2018 revealed brick foundations and the remains of a rear wall to the building. The excavation also identified two outbuildings, one of which may have been a scullery.

March 1987. Grade II listed. (Revoked April 2015). A 17th/18th century or earlier house and Post Office with later alterations and additions. The building is timber framed, mainly plastered, and has some weatherboarding. The roofs are of red plain tile. To the right is a two-storey range, hipped to the road with a central chimney stack. The left range is single storey, and both ranges have shop windows. There is a 20th century shop door with pediment over to the right range. G.R. wall letter box to right. <1> February 2015. Heritage assessment. A historic building report carried out by BJHC in support of delisting following fire damage and request for demolition dated the building to the period between 1874 and 1987. <2> June 2018. Trial trenching. The evaluation revealed a large number of features and building remains dating from the late 17th to the early 20th century. Two N-S brick foundations in Trench 1 are plinths to support a timber frame and are undoubtedly associated with the internal walls of the building. Their 19th to 20th century date is in accordance with the mid 19th century date assigned to the building during the historic building recording. See <2>. However, two brick foundations in the Eastern end of Trench 1 both seem to be related to, and respect, the same (presumably structural) heavily degraded timber, and may be of a different date. This suggests that the delivery office was perhaps renovated and partially rebuilt at some point, with some wall divisions retained and their foundations rebuilt, and other walls removed entirely and their foundations buried. Also corroborating this is a 19th century pavior brick floor found sealed directly under concrete; clearly the structure underwent significant alteration, probably in the early 20th century. This raises the possibility that some phases of the building may have been earlier in date than identified in the historic building recording, and that some elements of the structure may indeed have originated in the 17th or 18th centuries. Given that the historic building recording was carried out when the structure was already largely burnt down, it is unsurprising that some structural dating evidence was not observed. Also found in Trench 1 was a possible gravel surface, with its associated postholes, which may be the remains of a yard surface related to an earlier phase of building on the site. The rectangular building visible to the South of the delivery office on the 1st edition OS map may be related to the 18th or 19th century brick foundation revealed by Trench 2. <3> <4> See also <5> August 2018. Archaeological excavation. As recorded in the June 2018 evaluation, the excavation revealed a number of features and building remains associated with the delivery office dating from the 17th to the late 20th centuries. These remains included the rear wall of the former delivery office and two outbuildings, one of which was possibly a scullery dated to the late 18th to early 19th century with the other of early 20th century date. A small number of pits/postholes of post-medieval and modern date were also excavated. No evidence of any features or finds pre-dating the 17th century was recorded during the excavation, aside from a single sherd of residual medieval pottery. <6>