Remains of a possible early 20th century blacksmith's workshop at Pleshey Golden Jubilee Playground, Vicarage Road (EHER 80841)

Archaeological monitoring identified a former brick floor or building foundation in two locations at the Pleshey Golden Jubilee Playground. A small amount of slag recovered from the feature supports the suggestion that this may be the remains of a blacksmith's workshop.

March 2023. Watching brief. There was only one feature found during archaeological monitoring. Due to the neat line of brick seen in section, it is probably a former floor or foundation to a building. It appeared in two places, though did not appear as neat in the second location. Long-time residents of Pleshey noted there used to be a blacksmith’s workshop in the location where the feature was identified, and that this had been built in the 1920s and demolished in the 1960s. A brick recovered dates to the early 19th century, so may have been brick reused to construct this small building. An OS map from 1924 shows no evidence of a structure, however a later OS map from 1959 shows a small building, probably the one located on site. Samples of clinker recovered from these contexts support the idea that this building belonged to a blacksmith or other metalworker. <1>