Lufkins Farm, Great Bentley Road, Frating, Essex

Between the 1st and 19th of February 2021 Oxford Archaeology East undertook a trial trench evaluation on the site of Lufkins Farm, Great Bentley Road, Frating, Essex (TM 09737 21975). The work was carried out to inform a forthcoming planning application for sand and gravel extraction, prior to the construction of a reservoir.
A total of 92 trial trenches were excavated during the evaluation; nine trenches were unable to be opened due to flooding on the site. Forty trenches exposed archaeology consisting of ditches, pits and one cremation. The ditches probably made up part of a field system with at least one larger boundary ditch aligned approximately north to south across the centre of the site. Only five sherds of abraded pottery were recovered – two sherds of medieval pottery and one sherd of possible Beaker pottery – otherwise the features could not be closely dated. The cremation found in Trench 88 could point to further cremations nearby. The lack of artefactual evidence and the indeterminate pattern of the ditches suggests peripheral activity to that uncovered in excavations to the north, and could be either Roman or prehistoric in date.