Medieval shrunken village at Brooksies Field, Duddenhoe End (EHER 3958)

Village shrinkage of Duddenhoe End.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: Village shrinkage of Duddenhoe End. 13th-14th century pottery from Brooksies Field. <1> Flints, stones, tiles, bricks, pottery of the 13th-14th centuries. <2> Now in Saffron Walden Museum. <4> Brooksies Field has an area of 8.6 acres. Now arable and first ploughed in 1964 after drainage and levelling. Two ponds and a ditch were filled. Banks on the east and south sides were levelled and revealed the underlying clay. There was a concentration of flints, stones, bricks and tiles at the north end of the eastern bank near the pump. Stone picking was in progress at the time that one of the AP's was taken. Fragments of floor and roof tiles, soot-encrusted brick and plaster have been found. Pottery was mainly 13th-14th centuries and was mainly on the east side of the enclosure and near the site of the pond on the western side. <4> Soil mark shows on air photograph. <5> The adjacent field to the east is called Cockshall Field on the Enclosure Map. <6> It has been suggested that this is the site of the unlocated manor of Coggeshalls in Elmdon, recorded from 1359- 1571, this is supported by the mainly late medieval character of the finds of pottery. <7> <8> Sketch map of site in SMR. <9> Pottery reported by Dr A.J. Martin of Lofts Green. A 14th century date is suggested for the site's 'floruit'. A stamp on a handle does not occur in published collections from Essex. Also a flattened spherical orange glass bead, 11mm in diameter was found. Finds in Saffron Walden Museum. <10> November 1977. Field visit. Area is on rolling arable land adjacent to the hamlet of Duddenhoe End. Now under plough, no earthworks are visible and no surface finds were made on a visit. OS air photographs show early fields but neither crofts nor house sites can be identified. The field name was not confirmed. <11> <12> August 2007. Surveys. In August 2007 Archaeology RheeSearch Group carried out magnetometry and resistivity surveys on this site following the suggestion that it might be the location of one of the Duddenhoe manor houses. No distinct evidence of significant building remains was found within the areas surveyed. However, the high resistance area in the W corner of the resistivity survey could be due to building debris, possibly representing a single structure. Other features detected by the magnetometry survey included field boundaries and a circular feature. <13> Cropmarks of field boundaries were mapped for OARPE in 2011 in the area, most are depicted on 1st edition OS mapping. <14> - <16> See also: <17> - <19>