Land west of Heckford’s Road Great Bentley Colchester Essex Archaeological Evaluation for Welbeck Strategic Land II LLP CA Project: 660840 Essex Site Code: GBEHR17 April 2017 LAND WEST OF HECKFORD’S ROAD GREAT BENTLEY COLCHESTER ESSEX Archaeological Evaluation CA Project: 660840 CA Report: 17132 Document Control Grid Revision Date Author Checked by Status Reasons for Approved revision by 25/04/17 TL SRJ QA MLC This report is confidential to the client. Cotswold Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability to any third party to whom this report, or any part of it, is made known. Any such party relies upon this report entirely at their own risk. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means without permission. © Cotswold Archaeology © Cotswold Archaeology Land west of Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley, Colcheester, Essex: Archaeological Evaluation CONTENTS SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... 2 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 4 2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................ 6 3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................................... 8 4. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 8 5. EVALUATION RESULTS (FIGS 2-9) ................................................................. 9 6. THE FINDS ........................................................................................................ 13 7. DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 15 8. CA PROJECT TEAM .......................................................................................... 17 9. REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 17 APPENDIX A: CONTEXT DESCRIPTIONS ................................................................... 18 APPENDIX B: THE FINDS ............................................................................................. 22 APPENDIX C: OASIS REPORT FORM .......................................................................... 23 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 Site location plan (1:25,000) Fig. 2 Trench location plan showing archaeological features and inset of Trench 16 (1:750) and (1:100) Fig. 3 Trench 3: section and photograph (1:20) Fig. 4 Trench 4: sections and photographs (1:20) Fig. 5 Trenches 6 and 11: sections and photographs (1:20) Fig. 6 Trench 7: sections and photographs (1:20) Fig. 7 Trenches 10 and 11: sections and photographs (1:20) Fig. 8 Trench 16: section and photograph (1:20) Fig. 9 Trench 16: sections and photograph (1:20) 1 © Cotswold Archaeology Land west of Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley, Colcheester, Essex: Archaeological Evaluation SUMMARY Project Name: Land west of Heckford’s Road Location: Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley, Colchester, Essex NGR: TM 10993 22223 Type: Evaluation Date: 20-23 February 2017 Planning Reference: Tendering District Council 15/01820/OUT Location of Archive: To be deposited with Colchester & Ipswich Museum Accession Number: COLEM : 2017.40 Essex Site Code: GBHER17 In February 2017, an archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology of agricultural land located to the west of Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley, Colchester, Essex. The evaluation, which was commissioned by Welbeck Strategic Lannd II LLP, was carried out in compliance with a condition attached to outline planning consent for residential development. The evaluation comprised the excavation of sixteen 30m trial trenches. Fieldwork to the immediate west of the site at Sturrick Farm revealed ditches forming a droveway and associated enclosures of probable Bronze Age or Iron Age date. The evaluation was undertaken to investigate the possible continuation of the droveway. Further to confirm the presence or absence of archaeological remains within the site and to consider the possible relationship of any remains revealed with cropmarks recorded in the wider surrounding area. The evaluation revealed a low concentration of ditches and pits, producing limited dating evidence dispersed across the site. Notably, the possible continuation of the north-west to south-east aligned droveway recorded at Sturrick Farm was identified in the south-western corner of the site. A series of north-east to south-west aligned ditches were recorded at right angles to the droveway and may represent the remnants of an associated prehistoric field system. Additionally, a possible ring ditch was recorded within the norther part of the site and although no dating evidence was recovered this may represent broadly contemporary 2 © Cotswold Archaeology Land west of Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley, Colcheester, Essex: Archaeological Evaluation prehistoric activity. Overall, the site is generally characterised by low-level agrarian activity of possible prehistoric date. 3 © Cotswold Archaeology Land west of Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley, Colcheester, Essex: Archaeological Evaluation 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 In February 2017, Cotswold Archaeology (CA) carried out an archaeological evaluation of agricultural land to the west of Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley (site centred on NGR: TM 1099 2222; Fig. 1), hereafter the site. The evaluation was commissioned by Welbeck Strategic Land II LLP. 1.2 The evaluation was undertaken in respect of outline planning permission (15/01820/OUT) granted by Tendring District Council (TDC; the local planning authority) for the residential development of the site along with associated development and infrastructure. In keeping with paragraph 141 of the National Planning Policy Framework (DCLG 2012) and on a recommendation from Teresa O’Connor, Essex County Council’s Historic Environment Consultant (ECCHEC; the archaeological advisors to TDC), a condition was attached to the consent requiring that: 1. No development or preliminary ground-works can commence until a programme of archaeological trial trenching has been secured and undertaken in accordance with a Written Scheme of Investigation, which has been submitted by the applicant, and approved by the planning authority. Following the completion of this initial phase of archaeological work, a summary report will be prepared and a mitigation strategy detailing the approach to further archaeological excavation and/or preservation in situ through re-design of the development, shall be submitted to the local planning authority. 2. No development or preliminary groundwork can commence on those areas of the development site containing archaeological deposits, until the satisfactory completion of archaeological fieldwork, as detailed in the mitigation strategy, which has been signed off by the local planning authority. 3. Following completion of the archaeological fieldwork, the applicant will submit to the local planning authority a post-excavation assessment (within six months of the completion date, unless otherwise agreed in advance with the planning authority), which will result in the completion of post-excavation analysis, preparation of a full site archive and report ready for deposition at the local museum, and submission of a publication report. 4 © Cotswold Archaeology Land west of Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley, Colcheester, Essex: Archaeological Evaluation 1.3 The scope of the evaluation, which comprised the excavation of 16 X 30m long trial trenches, was agreed during discussions between CA and Teresa O’Connor. It was carried out in accordance with a Brief for Archaeological Evaluation, prepared by Teresa O’Connor (2017) and an approved Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) produced by CA (2017). The fieldwork also followed Standard and Guidance: Archaeological Field Evaluation (CIfA 2014), Management of Archaeological Projects 2 (English Heritage 1991), Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment (MoRPHE): Project Manager’s Guide (HE 2015) and Standards for Field Archaeology in the East of England (Gurney 2003). The fieldwork was monitored by Teresa O’Connor, including a site visit on 21 February 2017. The site 1.4 The proposed development site comprises agricultural land which covers an area of 2.4ha. The site is bounded by Heckford’s Road to the east, residential properties to the west and south and open land to the north. The site lies on relatively flat land between 25 to 28m above Ordnance Datum (aOD). 1.5 The underlying bedrock geology of the area is mapped as Thames Group clay and silt of the Palaeogene Period (BGS 2017). It is overlain by superficial deposits of Cover Sand comprising clay, silt and sand formed during the Quaternary period (BGS 2017). Previous archaeological work directly to the west recorded the geology as sandy silty clay with some patches of silt (CAT 2014). 5 © Cotswold Archaeology Land west of Heckford’s Road, Great Bentley, Colcheester, Essex: Archaeological Evaluation 2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 The archaeological and historical background of the site has been presented in a historic environment assessment produced by SLR Consulting (SLR 2015). The following section is summarised from this source and supplemented with information from the the Essex Historic Environment Record (HER) and other historical records via online sources (HER numbers in parenthesis). Prehistoric (pre-AD 43) 2.2 There are a number of undated cropmarks, possibly