SEX75152 - Archaeological Investigation Land at Pyms Road, Galleywood, Chelmsford

This report presents the results of an archaeological evaluation and excavation carried out by Archaeology South-East on land at Pyms Road, Galleywood, Chelmsford, Essex in advance of residential development of the site. The fieldwork took place from 24 July to 05 August 2024. A Napoleonic defensive line, comprising a series of bastions defined by earth banks and ditches extending between two forts at Galleywood and Widford, is understood to pass through the west of the site on a north/south orientation. This was constructed in 1803 and dismantled by 1813 and was though to comprise a projecting bastion and entranceway within the site. The evaluation of the 4,679sq m site confirmed the presence of these defences, with parts of a substantial ditch being found in two trenches and partly excavated by machine. The course of this ditch was subsequently further exposed in an expanded excavation area (Area 1) between these trenches, within which it was investigated by means of a largely machine-excavated slot across it. The investigated ditch was generally c.6m wide and a maximum of 2.3m deep and contained a sequence of infills from which a small quantity of artefacts, comprising single pieces of brick, roof tile and glass bottle of 19th- or 20th-century date, were recovered. These remains are interpreted to define part of a line of earthwork bastions lying just to the north of the artillery fort on Galleywood Common. A single small posthole located toward to the east limit of the site, containing an iron nail, is likely to have been of later post-medieval or modern date. Deposits of made ground and modern surfaces in the west of the site, that overlay the ditch remains, constitute 20th-century levelling groundworks associated with the construction and use of the adjacent Galleywood Reservoir. This is the first time that the Napoleonic defences at Chelmsford have been subject to intrusive archaeological investigation. As such, these results have a local significance and importance that merit their further dissemination. It is proposed that a Shorter Note is prepared for publication in a forthcoming volume of the Transactions of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History.