Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 984: summary

Archaeological evaluation on land south of 70 Victoria Road, Laindon, Basildon, Essex, SS15 6AR: July 2016
by Laura Pooley (with contributions from Stephen Benfield, Ben Holloway, Emma Holloway, Dr Pip Parmenter)

Date report completed: August 2016
Location: Land south of 70 Victoria Road, Laindon, Basildon, Essex, SS15 6AR
Map reference(s): TQ 67553 89070
File size: kb
Project type: Evaluation
Significance of the results:
Keywords:

Summary. An archaeological evaluation by trial-trenching was carried out on land to the south of 70 Victoria Road, Laindon in advance of the construction of four new dwellings with associated parking, landscaping and boundary walls. The development site was partially located on the northern edge of the medieval moated enclosure of Great Gubbins Farm. A single trial-trench was positioned over the projected line of the moat and, despite a lot of modern disturbance, it was identified within the centre of the trench (F1) surviving to a depth of at least 1.6m. Historic mapping shows that the moat was only partially filled with water by the late 19th century with the remaining earthwork visible until c 1940. Dating evidence from the moat confirms that the earthwork was being gradually filled during these decades with most of the backfilling occurring during the early 20th century. No evidence from the medieval period was apparent within the excavated fill of the moat.