Nazeingbury Late Saxon cemetery (EHER 3427)

A 7th to 9th century cemetery and church, possibly indicating the site of a nunnery, and also thought to be the site of a possible minster. There were two phases of cemetery, the second clustering around the post-hole building termed 'church 2', which lay south of the building termed 'church 1'. Grass-tempered pottery suggests a founding date in the 7th century, and the absence of shelly-ware suggests that the site had been abandoned before 850. There were 2 calibrated radiocarbon dates, of 560-720 and 760-920 AD. The site is now in an area of boating lakes.

In 1934 at Lapwoods Nursery at Nazeing Mead, some 20+ inhumations with heads to the west were found, without grave goods, in closely ordered graves around 0.6m (2 feet) deep. Romano-British pottery was scattered generally through the topsoil, but not in the graves. <1> The skeletal remains were removed from the site by the police and reburied in Nazeing churchyard. <5> Excavations in 1975-76 have shown these sherds originated from a nearby Iron Age to Romano-British farmstead (EHER 3424) and associated ladder field system (EHER 3425).<2> During salvage excavations 1975-6 prior to gravel extraction, this area was examined in greater detail. 186 burials were located, although not all were excavated. Although some contained no surviving skeletal material, study of the remains excavated indicate at least 192 individuals are represented. These were aligned on and mostly respected two timber post-hole buildings interpreted as churches. Two individuals were taken to be radiocarbon dated, with dates 670±80 AD and 830±80 AD. The latest material to come from the graves was 66 grass-tempered Saxon sherds plus 13 fragments of Saxon loomweights. The absence of shelly ware pottery is taken as implying a closing date for the cemetery of around pre-AD 850. Grave goods: an iron knife, a coin of Constans, a bone-headed pin, and a horse's tooth used as a pendant. Analysis of the human skeletal material shows that the age and sex ratios represented are not those which would be expected from a normal rural community. The superabundance of older women and scarcity of juveniles has suggested instead that the cemetery represents a "hospice, possibly run by a religious order". Including the 20+ graves located in 1934, and estimates of others lost in areas not watched during machining, the minimum population estimate for the cemetery is 230. The finds and records are in the Collections of the Waltham Abbey Historical Society. <4> - see p 48 for list of features; p 50 for site map; p 52 for sections; p 55 for graphs presenting skeletal analysis, pp 58-62 for tables presenting skeletal analysis. Other refs: <1> <3> <5> - <9> NRHE data transfer: In 1934, Romano-British pottery and inscribed Samian ware, dated AD 50 to 150 by CFC Hawkes, together with human and animal bones were scattered generally through the soil but not in association with the burials. Miss Tildesley, of the Royal College of Surgeons, visited the site and thought that the friable nature of the bones suggested a date not later than Saxon and more likely late Roman when that type of burial first came into use. <5> The VCH also mentions a batch of native ware of 1st Century date which JRS seems to classify as La Tene III, which is in Colchester Museum. <7><11> 1975. OS Field Survey. The above burials were found during road laying in Hainault Nusery centred about TL 3858 0658.(a). When the nursery was demolished in 1974, prior to gravel quarrying, further burials were found at the above position. Excavations by P Huggins for Waltham Abbey Historical Society have recovered a further 55 inhumations to date. A probable enclosure ditch has been located around the cemetery which is possibly no more than 30.0m square. No grave goods have been found, but pottery and associated finds indicate a Saxon-Norman date for the cemetery. A full excavation report is pending. <12> Report on excavations, 1975-6. Two timber churches of the 7th-8th and 8th-9th centuries each aligned with graves prepondently those of women suggest a nunnery. They lay over drainage ditches of a Roman field system with rectilinear house enclosure which lasted to 160 AD which had developed from late Iron Age fields with a curvi-linear settlement enclosure. <4> Iron Age triangular loomweight listed from this site (see EHER 3424). <13> Additional references: <14><15>