Multi-period remains at NE Chelmsford Bypass site TT01, Bulls Lodge Quarry (EHER 80775)

Trial trenching in area TT01 recorded limited evidence for Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age activity in the form of small pottery assemblages and a concentration of ditches producing Roman pottery in the NE of the site. Isolated instances of medieval pottery serve as evidence of a rural agricultural landscape at this time, and several boundary ditches produced post-medieval artefacts and correspond to field boundaries on the 1st Edition OS map.

August 2021. Trial trenching. The later prehistoric evidence from area TT01 amounts to one sherd of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery and 29 sherds of Middle/Late Iron Age pottery, all from a ditch in Trench 46, and several of which are from the same vessel. This same feature also yielded 14 sherds of Roman pottery and it is probable that this later pottery is from a secondary deposit of older material used to seal this feature during the Roman period. Evidence for Roman occupation was noted in the NE of this area where concentrations of Roman pottery were found mixed with occasional residual prehistoric sherds. Ditches in Trench 47 and 55 produced Roman pottery, and a deposit found in Trenches 54 and 55 also produced similar material. Elsewhere there were also a scatter of undated features, although isolated instances of medieval pottery were found, mainly in pits. A single ditch in Trench 23 produced a fairly large assemblage of medieval pottery comprising fragments of 11 different vessels. Overwhelmingly, these vessels lack glaze or decoration suggesting a domestic utilitarian usage, reinforcing the background research impression of a rural landscape dominated by scattered farms. In several trenches ditches of modern date, and containing post-medieval and modern pottery as well as modern glass, were found. Trench 84 yielded a small assemblage of modern glass, including a partial bottle of ‘Archer & Son’, seemingly a soft drink manufacturer from Braintree in the early 1900s, from a pit and a ditch. Similar ditches were evident in several other trenches in this area but were devoid of finds. All of these features correspond to a ditched set of field boundaries shown on the 1st Edition (1888-1913) OS map, emanating from the Mount Maskell property just East of the site. Elsewhere, in TT01 a ditch yielded fragments of post-medieval brick and tile. <1> <2>