Nineteenth century field boundaries at Brook Green, Braintree (EHER 80079)

Former field boundaries which correspond to those seen on the 1875 OS map were detected as geophysical anomalies in areas 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8.

September 2015. Geophysical survey. Two former boundaries, depicted on the 1875 OS map, are visible in Area 1, as is a more tentative response which shadows the stream South of Area 3. In Area 4, an old division runs roughly North-South through the survey area and to its East are two linear trends which terminate at this line and presumably indicate some further sub-division. The same 1875 map shows an irregular shaped boundary in Area 6 and this is clearly visible in the magnetic data. It is possible that this also marks the line of a former stream and this would help interpret the two linear anomalies in the West which join said feature as potential drains. To the East of the boundary is another linear and this is on exactly the same alignment as the boundary between Areas 1 and 2, suggesting this was originally a continuation of this division (pre-dating the railway line). There is another old boundary close to the Western limits of Area 6. A further network of old boundaries is visible in Fields 7 and 8. These either tie in with old mapping or indicate a shift / re-alignment of some of the present day boundaries. <1>