Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 541: summary

Watching Brief at Bourchiers, Station Road, Little Dunmow, Essex: 22nd February 2010
by Howard Brooks and Ben Holloway

Date report completed: March 2010
Location: Bourchiers, Station Road, Little Dunmow, Essex
Map reference(s): TL9965125590
File size: 1818 kb
Project type: Watching brief
Significance of the results: neg
Keywords:

Summary. Bourchiers lies on the site of a probable Roman farmstead (Essex Historic Environment Record no 1250). Roman pottery was found at the Bourchiers farm when the present house was constructed. Hastings Worrin, owner of the farm for many years, had a large archaeological collection, partially collected from his own land. Labourers draining an adjacent field before 1893 cut through several pottery kilns.

Following a brief issued by Essex County Council Historic Management team (Bourchiers, Station Road, Little Dunmow. December 2009), a watching brief was carried out by CAT on the reduction of a bank and the digging of two gate-posts. No archaeological features or finds were observed. The lack of archaeological material may be due to the small scale of the project, to previous damage caused by the construction of the nearby railway line and embankment, and to the distance of the gate-posts (approximately 300m) from Bourchiers, where Roman activity may have been focused.