Site of two conjectural Neolithic tumuli, Birdbrook Hall (EHER 6969)

Now destroyed, having been ploughed out at sometime before 1903. The Colchester Museum Map reports two tumuli in grounds of Birdbrook Hall. According to the Victoria County History (published 1903) they had been excavated and were interpreted as possibly Neolithic. A visit from the OS field officer in 1950 concluded they were certainly not tumuli.

'Colchester Museum Map reports two tumuli in grounds of Birdbrook Hall'. <1> 'But VCH.. notes two tumuli which according to them were excavated. They 'may have been Romano-British but were more likely Neolithic' (!) apparently on the basis of the pottery found". <2> Birdbrook (TL 7041 [unlocated]) "Two tumuli, containing pottery, were destroyed before 1903; they may have been Romano-British but it was thought more likely that they were Neolithic".<3> (TL 7063 4120) Tumuli (NR). <4> May 1950. Field visit. Two bulbous projections of a bank - obviously not tumuli. <5> <6> Site Assessment: More information needed, particularly on dating. Original HER entry merged with NRHE data transfer. NRHE summary description, 379426: The site of two barrows is reported. They are thought to have been destroyed before 1903 and found to contain pottery. At the time, a Neolithic date for the pottery was favoured over a Romano-British one, though given the date of the discovery, neither attribution is likely to be reliable.