Post-medieval well at land at Place House, Dunmow Road (EHER 80165)

A cobble-built well, constructed within a pit containing post-medieval pottery. The destruction of a modern wall also revealed a post-medieval wall underneath, which was cut into the pit slightly.

July 2014. Watching brief. Excavation for the footings trench revealed a cobble-built well in the NW corner of the trench. The well, of cobbles set in mortar, was constructed within a pit, with the cut for the pit wider to the NE, and the well being built against the SW vertical pit wall. The backfill of the pit contained very common fragments of brick and tile, and two post-medieval pottery sherds: a rim from a large pot and a glazed handle from a jug. The finds suggest a construction date for the well in the post-medieval period, perhaps associated with the modernisation of Place House in 1564, as depicted on a plaque on the building. It is not known when the well went out of use. As part of the site clearance a modern wall, orientated W-E was demolished, and was seen to be built over an earlier wall, the footings for which used earlier bricks with a mortar very similar to that used in the well’s construction. The wall, however, is later than the well as it cuts it slightly on its southern extent. <1>