Monument record HVH 056 - Iron Age and possible Roman features at Haverhill Business Park

2006: A trial trench evaluation consisting of fifty two trenches revealed a low density of archaeological finds and features on the site. Of the nineteen cut features that were recorded, only nine contained datable finds. Three of the features yielded artefacts of Iron Age or Roman date, with the remainder being Post Medieval in date. The features recorded did not suggest any particular concentration of activity of any period. The site does not seem to have seen activity on the scale of the density of occupation on the opposite side of Bumpstead Road (See Essex HER record STBHB 03) (S1).

2008: Archaeological monitoring of groundworks on the eastern part of site revealed no archaeological features or finds (S2).

2002: Desk based assessment to assess the archaeological potential of an area of land planned for the Haverhill Business Park indicated in archaeological site of a scatter of medieval pottery sherds within the proposed development area. A further archaeological potential for Roman and Anglo-Saxon remains was identified (S3).

2002: An evaluation of the west area of the site (mostly within Essex) revealed a Late Iron Age/early Roman settlement site and evidence of Early Bronze Age activity within the development area. The Bronze Age features were a low density and well dispersed group of pits but the presence of pottery and hearth debris suggests some limited level of occupation of the site during the period. The Iron Age features suggest that there was a well-structured settlement occupying a prominent position on the top of the slope over-looking the valley floor during the start of the first millenium AD. The network of ditches would indicate that a series of boundary ditches divided properties within the settlement: postholes and pits were also recorded. The quantities of pottery and the presence of charcola-rich, occupation debris soils within the ditches indicate that they were within an area of habitation occupied from the first half of the 1st century AD just after the conquest. (S4)

2003: An excavation was undertaken following an evaluation on the eastern part of the site (mostly in Essex). The excavation targeted a probable late Iron Age settlement site and a separate area around a Bronze Age pit. In the northwest corner of Area 1 evidence of a prehistoric four post structure and a group of rubbis or cooking/boiling pits and two ditches. Evidence of a late Iron Age settlement was revealed in Area 1 which included two eaves-gully houses and associated features, two substantial pit groups, a system of enclosure ditches, an area of dense intercutting gullies and ditches. The Iron age structures are later abandoned and cut by a substantial NW-SE enclosure or boundary ditch of 1st-2nd century date. The central part of area 1 became dominated by a large pond in this period. The latest activity was post medieval and represented by substantial parish boundary ditches visible on the 1st edition OS maps. (S5).