Iron Age banked and ditched enclosure, Hampton Barns (EHER 11264)

Reputed Iron Age enclosure, not visible on aerial photographs. Iron Age, Roman and Saxon pottery has been found on the site.

Iron Age site with later, medieval, evidence. Excavations of this site made in 1924. The site, on Pleistocene gravels, is a major defended site with a palisade trench followed by a bank, ditch and outer bank; survey later showed the bank surviving to a height of 4 feet. Stratified pre-Roman pottery. <1> 1963. Archaeological excavation. Part excavation by East-West trench through the palisade, outer bank and the creek which lay to the west. Results of this excavation suggests that this site is a settlement first defended in the Iron Age. Sequence of occupation shows construction of a 'V-shaped' palisade trench in the earlier part of the Iron Age, followed by the digging of a wide ditch and outer bank. The ditch was later recut and the western bank erected in the late Iron Age followed by the construction of a major east bank and palisade. Silting material of the creek contained both Iron Age and Medieval pottery and sherds of 17th century date. Helliwell concluded that the palisade was probably the outer side of a community defence which included a ditch to the east, i.e. beyond the area excavated although it could have formed part of a linear defence. Finds are mainly of pottery and bone but the small finds include a baked clay crucible which showed no traces of metal although it was very badly burnt, and fragments of loomweights. <2> <3> NRHE data transfer: Iron Age, Roman and Saxon pottery, together with a coin of Claudius Gothicus, was found in Martin's Gravel Pit, in a field opposite the Royal Oak Inn, Stambridge. Finds now in Southend Museum (SM.221). <4> TQ 899916 correct position of Martin's Gravel Pit, Remains of reputed Iron Age banked and ditched enclosure. Nothing visible on air photographs. <5> <6> In 1924 fragments of three early 5th century AD pots were found during gravel digging in Martin's Pit, opposite the Royal Oak. There was no evidence for burials. <7> Additional reference. <8> Note: EHER 13414 is a record for an Iron Age cremation cemetery found in a gravel pit which be the same gravel pit described in this record.