SEX73779 - The Rose & Crown, 109 High Street, Maldon, Essex: Post-excavation Assesment and Update Project Design Report

Initially an L-shaped evaluation trench was opened up along the length and width of the position of the proposed extension. As numerous features of medieval and later date were present within the trench the entire footprint of the new extension was opened-up at the request of the monitoring officer and in consultation with the client. A small quantity of residual prehistoric pottery recovered from the excavation attests to a prehistoric presence in the landscape. However, the earliest actual feature was a curving gully tentatively dated to the Roman period on a single sherd of pottery. Further pottery and tile was found residual in later features and it is likely, given the proximity to the small Roman town at Heybridge, that there is agricultural activity and possibly rural settlement in the area. Medieval remains comprised a variety of pits, post-holes and linear features. The earliest phase consists of a pit and a possible ditch in the north of the site dating to the 10th/11th century and which provide some evidence for the early development of the town east of the postulated position of the burh. The recovery of residual material of this date suggests further features may have been masked by later activity. A middle phase of activity broadly dates from the 12th to the 14th centuries. The most significant feature is a north-east/south-west aligned property boundary ditch that appears to be respected by 15th century buildings at the front of the property. In a later medieval phase dating to the late 15th to mid-16th century several large pits are dug, presumably for clay extraction, and are subsequently backfilled with cess and general rubbish. A fence-line appears to replace the infilled property boundary ditch. A contemporary barrel-lined well lies upon this boundary. Fence-lines identified in the post-medieval period are likely to be internal garden features as in the 17th century the two properties are combined and in use as an alehouse by 1691. Three cess pits, one of which is timber lined containing waste material from the alehouse firmly date to the 18th century. Modern brick and post-hole features broadly correlate with the positions of 19th century outbuildings shown on early Ordnance Survey maps.