Neolithic pits and finds assemblage, east of Hoe Farm (EHER 7857)

During the trial trench excavation of a cropmark enclosure (see EHER 7859), evidence was recorded for Neolithic occupation, indicated by an assemblage of flint artefacts and pottery sherds, and a few pits. The flint types were mostly waste material but did include a few tools such as a probably Early Neolithic 'laurel leaf'. The pottery included Grooved Ware and some residual Neolithic/Bronze Age sherds.

April-May 1976. Trial trenching. A cropmark enclosure (see EHER 7859) was excavated in 1976. The fieldwalking and excavation recorded Neolithic flintwork and pottery. A pit in Trench C contained a small number of sherds of Grooved Ware pottery and can be attributed to the Late Neolithic. Two more pits in the same trench, tentatively ascribed to the Mesolithic (see EHER 7856), could in fact have also been Neolithic in date. A number of features in Trenches A and B also produced residual Neolithic/Bronze Age pottery. The flintwork is mostly waste material. The few tools include scrapers, an oblique arrowhead and a laurel leaf (likely to be Early Neolithic). Grain, hazelnuts and charred oak from the Late Neolithic pit suggests there may have been domestic occupation in the vicinity. A Neolithic axe was also found by a farm worker (see EHER 81836) from Brook Field prior to excavation. <1> <2> <3> See also <4> <5> <6>. Site Assessment: 'Woodham Walter is one of a small number of Essex sites to have produced pottery of Neolithic date'. <1> See aerial photographs <7> - <10>. Note: The recorded features were located in trenches A, B and C, however it has not been possible to determine the extent of the fieldwalking survey from the published sources, nor the location of the Neolithic finds from the fieldwalking survey. As a result, the mapped polygon represents the maximum possible extent from which the finds may have been recovered and has been derived as part of the 'whole-field' approach to recording cropmarks in the data.