Summary.
Archaeological monitoring was conducted on land at Heath Place, located between Chadwell St Mary and Orsett, near Grays in south Essex, by the Colchester Archaeological Trust (CAT) on the 17th August 2009. Invasive groundworks on the site consisted of the removal of an unlisted building directly adjacent to a listed brickbuilt building (store) which is to be retained and modified. The demolished building is to be replaced with a single-storey residential annexe built on top of the existing footprint on newly-constructed foundations. The development site is within the curtilage of Heath Place, a late 18th-century listed house constructed of brick and timber framing.
One feature was observed in the base of the foundation trench in the south-western
corner; this was a large modern feature, presumably a pit, with a dark brown clayeysilt
fill. The ?pit was only partially excavated because it was modern, as indicated by
the presence of finds such as modern china fragments and modern building materials.
A large quantity of disarticulated animal bone, mainly horse (including teeth, pelvis,
radius and pelvis) and some cow (scapula and humerus) was also found in the pit. All
finds recovered from the foundation trench and the cleaning of the trench edges are
modern and have not been retained. The excavation of a short service trench (300mm
long) in the south-west corner of the foundation was also monitored, but nothing of
archaeological significance was found.
The large modern ?pit, which had not been completely removed, was substantial in
depth and located in the shallowest foundation trench. The cleaning of the edges of
the foundation trenches revealed no evidence of significant archaeological material or
deposits, including anything which might be associated with the nearby Neolithic
causeway enclosure (EHER nos 5158, 5162-5165), the cropmark complex (EHER no
5235) or later occupation of the landscape, or Heath Place itself.