Multiperiod cropmarks of enclosures, trackway, and ring ditch, Holford Farm (EHER 1796)

Cropmarks of a rectangular enclosure of probable Iron Age date and multiperiod cropmarks including linear features, parallel ditches, a ring ditch and possible pits.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. Undated cropmark features to the east of Turnpike Lane. Part of a large complex, some of which, to the west of Turnpike Lane, has been destroyed (with some rescue excavation-see 1787-1795). Features east of Turnpike Lane included two parallel ditches, they are shown on old maps as a boundary. They may indicate a road of Roman origin. They stretch from Rectory Lane in the south to Muckingford Road in the north. The early date is shown by the appearance on a map of 1584 of the boundary, virtually as it was shown on the OS map of 1897. In the angle formed by the junction of Muckingford Road and Turnpike Lane is the cropmark of a polygonal enclosure. There are possible entrances to east and south east. The probably Roman road and a north-south trackway pass over it. Its relationship to these features is not known but from its plan "a prehistoric date seems most likely". Further south, a pair of curving ditches run north west-south east on the opposite side of the road from Turnpike cottages. The property boundary of the latter apparently continues the line of the northern ditch. The boundary and cottages are modern, however. The early ditch line can only survive in an indentation in the highway boundary shown on the 1848 tithe map. Further south than these features, in the north east angle between Turnpike Lane and Rectory Lane, a scatter of pit-like cropmarks may represent a settlement composed of sunken featured buildings (see 1792 for an adjacent excavated example and 1794, 1795 for similar adjacent cropmarks, some which have been destroyed). <1> Cropmarks in this area also included enclosures, ring ditches, trackways, pits, linear features, double ditches. These are in the area centred TQ 659782, also parallel ditches at TQ 658781. <2> <3> Aerial Photographic references: <4>-<8> Maps of these cropmarks in the record. <8> Site Assessment Area recommended for scheduling in 1980 because of potential to show development from pre-Saxon to medieval periods. Cropmarks could be related to an existing village centre. Site may offer dating for enclosure in this district, also comparison of common strip farming (this continued into the 19th century on this site). An early enclosure on the east of the site may be pre-Tudor. "It is suggested that the scheduling should include the peripheral banks, hedges and road verges". <9> <10> Aerial Photograph References <11> - <19> The Survey of West Tilbury Ao1581 vltimo die augusti Written survey with map extracts, in original language. <13> Additional reference <20>