Medieval ditches and pit, NW of 2 Maldon Road (EHER 81325)

Trial trenching recorded medieval features, comprising ditches and a pit which were found along the Southern edge of the site. These may be the remains of possible rural settlement and agricultural activity alongside Maldon Road, dating to the 12th-14th centuries. The pit coincides with the location of a dwelling shown on late 18th century mapping and suggests that this settlement had medieval origins.

January 2020. Trial trenching. The evaluation recorded demonstrably medieval features in Trenches 96, 97 and 111, all of which are situated along the southern edge of the site. These features are dated by pottery in their fills to the 12th-14th centuries. A substantial WNW-ESE oriented ditch in Trench 97 was roughly parallel to the road and a North-South oriented ditch was also recorded in Trench 96; it may perhaps have terminated where it met the course of the ditch identified in Trenches 97 and 98. It is, however, unclear whether or not these ditches formed part of a field system. A substantial pit, containing medieval pottery of 12th-14th century date, was also identified in Trench 111. This feature is well-positioned to be associated with a house plot shown on the 1777 Chapman and Andre map and on the 1873-4 OS map. This plot is not shown on the 1895 revision. Conjectured to be a rubbish pit, its presence may hint at a medieval origin for the mapped settlement here. Also recorded was a series of later medieval features including a NW-SE oriented ditch in Trench 92 which contained 15-16th century pottery and was broadly parallel with the road. At the Northern end of Trench 92 an unexcavated feature, which may have been a ditch, was also noted on a similar orientation, but contained late medieval/ early post-medieval pottery. <1>