12th century pit, land at Devereux Farm, Kirby-le-Soken (EHER 46743)

An archaeological evaluation by trial trenching revealed isolated archaeological features principally a 12th century pit.

Archaeological evaluation, 2008 An archaeological evaluation was undertaken on land to the north of Devereux Farm, Island Lane, Kirby-Le-Soken by the Essex CC Field Archaeology Unit, on behalf of the Environment Agency, in advance of managed re-alignment and habitat creation works. The work was commissioned in order to determine the presence or absence, date, character, quality and significance of any archaeological remains present within the footprint of the development and the likely impact of any construction works upon them. Nine evaluation trenches, each measuring 30m x 1.6m, were excavated within the area of the proposed works. All trenches revealed clean, orange/brown clay at an average depth of 0.60m with the exception of trench 9, in which alluvial deposits were present at 1.20m. No archaeological features were present in trenches 1, 4, 5 and 8, while trenches 2, 3 and 7 contained isolated archaeological remains in the form of a 12th Century pit in trench 7, possible prehistoric deposits in trench 3 and a curvilinear gully of unknown date in trench 2. A small undated pit containing animal remains was also investigated in trench 6, while a linear feature seen in Trench 9 may be a natural channel or man-made drainage ditch. Overall, the density of archaeological features is low; however, given the relatively shallow depth at which archaeological remains were encountered in trenches 3 and 7 (0.65m and 0.4m below existing ground level respectively), it is suggested that they will be vulnerable to disturbance from all but the shallowest of development works. <1>