Neolithic to Bronze Age activity on land South of Long Road, Lawford (EHER 80578)

Neolithic to Bronze Age activity on the site consisted of three ditches and a single pit. The ditches which correlate with cropmarks of the Roman road (EHER 2770) said to have traversed this site do not appear to be consistent with the form of a Roman road, and the excavators suggest they may be more indicative of a Neolithic cursus monument. Archaeological excavation recovered Neolithic pottery and flint fragments but did not record any Neolithic features.

August 2020. Trial trenching. Neolithic to Bronze Age activity on the site consisted of three ditches and a single pit. Perhaps the most intrinsically interesting feature of this date was a ditch that contained 44 pottery sherds derived from a single middle Neolithic vessel, which may form a small enclosure identified during the preceding geophysical survey. The Roman road between Manningtree and Colchester, EHER 2770, was said to have traversed the site but the features revealed do not appear to be consistent with the form of a Roman road. The supposed parallel ‘roadside ditches’ were around 0.7m deep and around 1.5m wide and contained just a single sherd of Roman pottery and a small number of Neolithic to Bronze Age pottery sherds. No metalled road surface or hollow way was identified. The evidence gathered by the evaluation was unable to confidently date or characterise the ditches and cropmarks. While the feature has been proven to be part of a Roman road at Ardleigh Park, the form of the features revealed during the current evaluation is perhaps more indicative of a Neolithic cursus monument. <1> February 2021. Archaeological excavation. No archaeological features dating to the Neolithic or Bronze Age were encountered within the excavation areas, although a single sherd, a ‘crumb’ of Neolithic pottery and a small number of struck flints, including a possible awl and a core fragment, indicate transient activity within the general area at this time. <2>