Probable Iron Age to Roman cropmark complex, Fords Farm (EHER 7872)

Cropmarks of a ring ditch, square double ditched enclosure, rectangular enclosures, linear features, pits and trackways are visible on many aerial photographs. The majority of these features are thought to date from the Iron Age and Roman periods.

Cropmarks of a ring ditch, square double ditched enclosure, rectangular enclosures, linear features, pits and trackways. 'Extensive farmstead site, rectilinear field system with small regular enclosures and paddocks. Large double-ditched enclosure cut on the north side by a hedge. At the south-east corner are a smaller square enclosure (not contemporary) and a possibly earlier post hole structure of the same size and shape but slightly different alignment. To the west are two enclosures, one a square double-ditched with entrance on the east side to the south of this a subrectangular enclosure with south-curving antennae ditches extending out of the north side'. <1> See aerial photographs <2> - <11>. 1985. Aerial photograph survey. Trackways, linear features and pits were also plotted and on aerial photographs. <12> - <15> Part of the site was evaluated by South Eastern Archaeological Services. The backfilled evaluation trenches were photographed from the air on 6th April 1994. <16> <17> Further aerial photographs were taken in 2008 <18>, 2009 <19>, 2013 <20>, 2015 <21> and 2017 <22>. See cropmark plot <23> and NMR photographs <24> - <27>. See also <28> <29>. NRHE data import: 1976. OS Field Survey. The cropmarks visible on the above air photographs <7> <8> represent a double ditched square enclosure (A) centred TL 8345 0935 measuring approximately 40m square, a sub-rectangular enclosure (B) centred TL 8343 0925 which measures about 30m by 20m with gap on the south side, and a ring ditch © centred TL 8347 0944 about 10m diameter. The features are adjacent to the ploughed out ditches of old field boundaries. The marks, fall on low lying arable land, bounded on the north and east by the River Blackwater, and on the south-west by RRX 107b (EHER X). Nothing is visible on the ground and no finds have been reported. <30> TL832093. Several phases of a large farmstead complex are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The rectilinear layout of the enclosures is characteristic of late Iron Age/Roman farmsteads. The size, shape and regularity of the square double-ditched enclosure, occurring close to this evidently substantial settlement (site A) may indicate the presence of a late Iron Age or Roman Temple.<31> Additional reference. <32> ES 46 Listed as the possible site of a Roman villa. <33>