Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 1094: summary

Archaeological evaluation at Blue Barn Farm, Clacton Road, Elmstead Market, Essex, CO7 7DF: April 2017
by Laura Pooley (with contributions from Ben Holloway, Emma Holloway, Laura Pooley)

Date report completed: June 2017
Location: Blue Barn Farm, Clacton Road, Elmstead Market, Essex, CO7 7DF
Map reference(s): TM 07385 23618
File size: kb
Project type: Evaluation
Significance of the results:
Keywords:

Summary. An archaeological evaluation (four trial-trenches) was carried out at Blue Barn Farm, Elmstead Market, Essex in advance of the construction of five new dwellings with associated garages and access. The development site is located within an area of cropmarks, including that of a possible trackway leading from Elmstead Market. Evaluation revealed two medieval ditches, three undated (but probably medieval) ditches, three undated small pits/postholes, two modern features (a pit and ditch) and two tree-throws containing residual medieval pottery. The ditches appear to be field boundaries within a medieval, c 12th/13th-14th century, field-system. One of the ditches (F2) was on a similar alignment as the trackway cropmark, but given the distances involved between the edge of the cropmark and the feature (250m) it is impossible to determine if they are related.