Nineteenth century deposit and walls on land rear of 76 Church Street, Coggeshall (EHER 80134)

A single foundation trench yielded a dark earth deposit with 19th century pottery and building material, and two early 19th century walls.

July 2017. Watching brief. A single foundation trench yielded a dark earth deposit and a post-medieval wall, considered to be early 19th century in date. The deposit was encountered at a depth of 1.3m and was interpreted as a 'made' or disturbed layer, which contained mainly 19th century finds of pottery and building material. It may be associated with a partial reorganisation of the site when a small outbuilding, visible on the First edition Ordnance Survey map, existed here. Alternatively, the depth of the deposit may suggest that it is more likely to be the back-fill for a previous instance of material extraction, dating back to a time before the house was built in the late 17th century to early 18th century. The wall existed in two locations in the trench. To the NE and running quite close to the house, was a brick course of red frogged brick within a lime mortar. In the Southern end was a second course made of similar frogged brick but with a chamfer. No wall cuts were observed. The bricks were dated to the early 19th century. <1>