Iron Age sites at Wick Farm, Ardleigh, Essex (EHER 45455)

Excavation revealed five Late Iron Age sites. Most of the Late Iron Age remains excavated in 2008 were concentrated in Site D (north) and comprised of a small rectangular ditched enclosure surrounded by rubbish pits. Site C in the valley to the east contained a narrow Late Iron Age trackway heading towards the entrance to the settlement enclosure, a pit and a well. The trackway is thought to have demarcated a boundary between the wet area along the valley floor and a field system to the south.

A complex of cropmarks, including possible ring ditches, to the south of the farm was found to coincide with a scatter of burnt, possibly prehistoric flint. 2 flint flakes were recovered.<1> Trial trenching uncovered 5 Late Iron Age farmsteads of varying ages. Settlement possibly dates back to the Early Iron Age and carried on through until the late 1st/early 2nd century AD. Two of the sites correspond with the clusters of burnt flint found during fieldwalking.<2> Excavations in 2008 : Two archaeological sites dating to the Late Iron Age/early Roman period (mid-1st century BC to mid-1st century AD) were excavated during preliminary works for the construction of a large reservoir, which will be created through a long-term programme of sand and gravel extraction. The Late Iron Age sites (Sites C and D (north)), identified by an earlier trial-trenching evaluation (Germany 2006), were excavated in the Silt Pond and Processing Plant areas of the quarry. A small valley runs west to east across the site, with a stream flowing eastwards from it. A paleochannel, probably of glacial origin, was recorded in the valley floor in site C. The Late Iron Age remains in site D (north) were located immediately to the north of a cropmark identified by the trial-trenching evaluation as a Late Iron Age settlement enclosure (site D (south)). A second area of Late Iron Age remains in site C was located in the valley to the east of the settlement enclosure. Small-scale prehistoric remains were confined to site C, consisting of two pits containing burnt flints and two pits containing Middle Iron Age pottery, situated either side of the paleochannel. Most of the Late Iron Age features and finds were concentrated in site D (north), between two boundary ditches aligned on the entrance to the Late Iron Age settlement enclosure to the south. A small rectangular ditched enclosure formed the focal point for Late Iron Age activity in site D (north), with at least twenty pits ranged around it. The Late Iron Age features in this area contained large amounts of pottery but, unfortunately, animal bone and other environmental remains did not survive due to the acidity of the soil. Although no features were recorded in the interior of the enclosure, there is evidence for ironworking taking place there, as the enclosure ditch contained a deposit of ironworking waste from a furnace or smithing-hearth, including hammer scale and fragments of furnace lining with iron-rich, vitrified surfaces and evidence of a blowing-hole for a set of bellows. This suggests the enclosure was a craft-working area outside the main settlement. The area to the south-east of the enclosure remained free of features and was presumably the line of a trackway leading to the entrance of the main settlement enclosure. The Late Iron Age remains in site D (north) and the enclosure to the south represent an extensive Late Iron Age settlement spanning the head of the valley. Site C in the valley to the east contained a narrow Late Iron Age trackway heading towards the settlement, and a few Late Iron Age pits, one of which may have been a well. The trackway is thought to have demarcated a boundary between the wet area along the valley floor and a field system to the south. <3> <4>