Roman coffin at South House Farm, Little Hallingbury (EHER 3593)

Coffin of oolite slabs, containing a skeleton, was found in 1944.

Coffin of oolite slabs, containing a skeleton, found in 1944 in same gravel pit as late Iron Age urns (EHER 3592). Gravel pit has been greatly enlarged since then but no further finds have been reported. <1> - <3> NRHE data transfer: Stone coffined burial found in a gravel pit on South House Farm. <4> "A skeleton in a stone coffin was found in the gravel pit on South House Farm in about 1941. No attempt was made to preserve the find and it was never examined by a competent authority. It was found in the side of the gravel pit about five feet below the surface and consisted of slabs of stone forming an oblong coffin containing a skeleton. No further finds were associated with the burial." Site of burial shown on Field Sheet and Record Sheet. May possibly be associated with the Roman building in the south-west corner of the same field. <5> Find was made in November 1944. The slabs were about 3-4 inches thick and appeared to be of soft oolite. <6> <7> An account of this burial, siting it erroneously at Little Hallingbury Hall appeared in the Colchester Museum Report for 1947 <8>, on the authority of a verbal report by Canon Fisher. ("He also told me that it was found on Latton Common"). <9> June 1973. Field survey. The gravel pit in which the burial was found now extends over a larger area, and no further finds are reported. No further information on the burial. <10>