Medieval to post-medieval boundary ditches and pits, land east of Halstead Road (EHER 81680)

The evaluation identified a small area of medieval activity within the eastern part of the site. This medieval activity comprised of agricultural boundary ditches and a cluster of pits. Post-medieval and modern field system ditches were also uncovered.

2017. Archaeological Evaluation. The evaluation identified a small area of medieval activity within the eastern part of the site. This medieval activity comprised of agricultural boundary ditches and a cluster of pits. Post-medieval and modern field system ditches were also uncovered. The focus of the medieval activity appeared to be in the central and eastern areas of the site. The intersecting ditches represented by 1303, 4505 and 4803 contained medieval and medieval to post-medieval finds and were on a different alignment to the later field system ditches. One of the pits in the cluster at the south-western end of Trench 46 also contained medieval pottery; however two other pits in the cluster were observed to be cut through the subsoil, making the dating of these features difficult to determine. The presence of charcoal-rich fills in pit 4614 may suggest nearby domestic and/or industrial activity. North/south aligned ditches 5303 also dated to the medieval period and parallel ditch 5305 may be broadly contemporary. Ditch 5303 in particular contained a significant amount of pottery within its fill, which may be indicative of nearby settlement activity. Post-medieval activity was represented by the setting out of field boundaries on the same general alignment as the extant field boundaries. The sides of some of the ditches, such as 2903, were irregular suggesting the presence of hedgerows. The axis of this field system is approximately perpendicular to the course of Frinton Road, 150m south of the site, which may have therefore been in use by the post medieval period. Cartographic evidence indicates that the field system was changed slightly before the late 19th century, and that the fields then remained unchanged until the 1970s when the smaller fields were amalgamated to make two larger fields, which were themselves combined more recently. <1>