Middle Bronze Age droveway, Early Iron Age ditches and prehistoric finds assemblage at land North of Colchester Road, Coggeshall (EHER 80255)

A Middle Bronze Age droveway traversing the hillside North of the brook was identified by archaeological excavation and measured c. 50m wide. It was delineated by two parallel ditches which were c.3m wide and c.1m deep, and which were originally partially recognisable on the geophysical survey. The droveway may have been constructed to keep livestock away from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age settlement remains at EHER 8729. The evaluation phase of work also recovered one piece of prehistoric worked flint, which accompanied an assemblage of prehistoric pottery from both interventions. Similarly, a possible Roman droveway identified by the evaluation was proven to be Middle Bronze Age by the excavation. Archaeological evaluation also revealed an Early Iron Age ditch and pottery. Similarly, a possible Roman droveway identified by the evaluation was proven to be Middle Bronze Age by the excavation. Archaeological evaluation also revealed an Early Iron Age ditch and pottery. Archaeological evaluation also revealed an Early Iron Age ditch and pottery.

February 2017. Geophysical survey. On the South-facing slope in the Northern half of the site, a small number of faint curvilinear anomalies may locate soil-filled ditches although no clear archaeological pattern is discernible and a topographical and/or geological origin is possible. <1> November 2020. Archaeological evaluation. Archaeological remains were identified in forty-five out of ninety-one trenches. Only one piece of worked flint was recovered and this was of an indeterminate broad prehistoric date. It was recovered from an undated ditch in Trench 40 but is likely to be residual in this context. This very low incidence of prehistoric flintwork may suggest that land use prior to the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age was minimal here. The earliest archaeological remains appear to date to the Early Iron Age and consist of a few short lengths of a ditch in the North of the site and residual pottery recovered from the North and South, which suggests low level utilisation of the landscape at this time. <2> June 2021. Archaeological excavation. Area 1 confirmed the presence of a c.50m wide droveway, first delineated by the geophysical survey, which traversed the hillside North of the brook. The topographical survey of the site determined its sinuous course was probably a result of it skirting a further small gully that fed the brook from the North. The droveway funnelled livestock across a hillside c.300m North of previously excavated Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age settlement remains in Coggeshall at EHER 8729. See <4>. Considering the destructive potential of herds, the droveway may have been established to keep them away from this domestic area. The droveway was defined by large ditches (c.3m wide and c.1m deep) whose primary and secondary fills produced a few sherds of predominantly Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery along with a smaller Middle Iron Age component. The tertiary fills of Ditch 1176 also produced a few sherds of Romano-British pottery. Although only a tentative conclusion, this meagre assemblage of mixed dates could suggest the droveway was established during the Middle to Late Bronze Age and may have continued in use across the Iron Age and remained partially extant in the landscape around the time of the Roman conquest. The droveway is therefore a significant find, suggesting that pastoral lands probably extended from the Blackwater valley into the more peripheral claylands. <3>