Medieval to post medieval features associated with demolished buildings, Colchester Road (EHER 7429)

A rapid watching brief in June 1978 during building operations uncovered finds and features generally relating to the 16th to 17th century buildings that previously occupied the site including a cellar and a separate phase of brick foundations on an different alignment. Also found was a pit which may have served a tanning pit or cess pit.

Site 6. Rapid watching brief in June 1978 during building operations. The site was previously occupied by a group of 16th and 17th century buildings. A cellar may have belonged to one of these buildings. It had 19th century material in its fill, a yellow brick paved area was probably the yard behind this building. A separate phase of brick foundations on a different alignment was identified in modern foundation trenches. The relationship between the two foundation phases was not clearly seen but both cut layers of crushed plaster, probably from the demolition of previous timber buildings on the site. Finds from the site were largely unstratified and post medieval, but one group came from a sealed context, a brick-lined circular pit. This was lined with unmortared bricks and lay W of the house in RCHM inventory as No 8. The brown loam fill contained crushed plaster and broken glass. Finds included pottery (including stoneware), glass wine bottles, wine glasses, window glass, an iron bodkin, a sheep rib with knife cuts, and a rat tibia. The function of the pit is not certain - it may have been a tanning pit or had some other industrial function, but it is more likely that it was a cess pit. <1> RCHM reference in <1> places houses just within Lawford parish. <2> Information from the NRHE The NRHE records the house as having been built in the 16th century. <3>