Post-medieval wall at Plumb's Yard (St John's Close), Great Chesterford (EHER 4972)

Archaeological excavation in 1982 recorded part of a post-medieval wall which had divided two properties.

1982. Salvage excavation. The western part of the site had previously been two properties. The westernmost part had been a garden and the rest a slaughter-house yard. This division was still visible as a difference in the structure of the northern boundary wall, one part of which is constructed of red brick, the other of a mixture of materials such as flints, large stones and tiles. Several of the tiles were of Romano-British origin and it is probable that the lower part of the wall had been constructed of debris from the Roman town wall. The initial excavation trench was laid out along the line of the earlier boundary. On removal of the cultivation soil, the foundations of a wall were immediately exposed. These foundations were very shallow; they stood on the surface of the natural gravel which was only about 30cm below the surface. Where the wall crossed other deeper features, no attempt had been made to proivde more substantial foundations. The foundations consisted of a friable mortar containing flints, brick, broken pottery, broken bottles and even half of a marble mortar. From these inclusions, the wall appeared to be of late 19th century origin. The original wall was flint-lined from the evidence of a small portion forming the base of a shed wall in the property immediately to the south. A narrow disturbed, possible foundation, of chalk, 5cm deep, running parallel to the wall, with a 25cm diameter post hole at its northern end, may have been contemporary with it. <1>