Roman to post-medieval features at land at the former Dutch Nursery Garden Centre, West Street (EHER 80209)

A low density of archaeological remains were revealed in six trenches. These comprised one Roman gully, two medieval pits, one late post-medieval to modern pit, an undated former watercourse and undated pit and gully. The remains were scattered across the site, with no discernible foci of activity.

December 2019. Trial trenching. A low density of archaeological remains were revealed in six trenches. These comprised one Roman gully, two medieval pits, one late post-medieval to modern pit, an undated former watercourse and undated pit and gully. These features appear to relate to agricultural activities, such as land drainage, as well as to possible domestic disposal associated with nearby settlement. The remains were scattered across the site, with no discernible foci of activity. One piece of residual worked flint indicates a low-level presence during the prehistoric period. The earliest dated feature was a narrow gully in the North of the site, containing a large rim sherd of likely Roman date, truncated by modern disturbance. Two medieval pits and a third dating to the late post-medieval/modern period demonstrate later, low-level, use of the site, likely related to nearby dwellings of medieval Coggeshall. A N-S possible former watercourse was also uncovered; this may relate to a sinuous feature shown on the 1851 tithe map, but it does not align precisely. The presence of a spring was confirmed during fieldwork and these features appear to be related. The mapped feature seems to represent a natural watercourse gradually being channelled into drainage ditches, with the excavated feature representing its surviving remains. <1>