Probably medieval-post-medieval featrues, Crierswood to Witham Pipeline, Hale’s Farm, Little Braxted (EHER 47105)

A watching brief in 2008 recorded six features including three probably medieval pits, two undated ditches and two probably post-medieval ponds.

September 2008. Watching brief. The monitoring was successful in that six new archaeological features were identified. However, the lack of dating evidence provides little help in determining the age of the adjacent cropmarks which clearly relate to several phases of activity given the visible differences in alignment and intersection. <1> Six archaeological features were observed in the sides of the pipe trench. Pits 3 and 7 were located 3m apart. Two lumps of baked clay were recovered from Pit 3, although there was no evidence of in situ burning. It is possible that the burnt material originated from nearby fire-pit 7. Reddened clay beneath this pit provided clear evidence of in situ burning. No finds were recovered. This is suggestive of a medieval or earlier date for these features. Two ditches (9 and 11), appearing in both sides of the trench section, were recorded towards the north-west end of the observed pipeline route. These could be a southerly continuation of a possible trackway indicated by two parallel ditches shown to the north on the cropmark plot. No finds were recovered from either feature. A large feature (14), probably an infilled pond, was recorded at the south-east end of the observed route close to Hale’s Farm. One piece of peg-tile was noted in section and an adjacent field drain was noted that may have drained into the pond when it was in use. This feature is therefore likely to be of post-medieval date. A second large feature (16) was located in the centre of the route. It was most likely a large pit or pond although does broadly align with a cropmark in the field to the north east of the road and could conceivably be an earlier field boundary ditch. No finds were recovered. The one cropmark ditch depicted as crossing the pipeline, and shown as a boundary on 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps,was not identified probably because it was located within one of several areas of trench collapse. <2>