Monk’s Farm, Kelvedon, Essex: PXA and UPD

Between 7th September and 30th October 2020, Oxford Archaeology East carried out archaeological excavations at Monk’s Farm, Kelvedon, Essex ahead of the construction of a residential development. The excavation was preceded by geophysical survey and trial trenching which had revealed several areas of archaeological activity within the 10ha development area. These remains were targeted by three separate excavation areas (A, B and C), covering a total area of 1.4ha within a wider development area covering some 10ha.
A small number of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze features were found across the site, but the earliest phase of sustained activity was during the Iron Age. In Area B, a small C-shaped enclosure, a larger sub-circular enclosure and a relatively large number of pits were exposed, variously associated with Early and Middle Iron Age pottery. Elsewhere, in Area B, an isolated cremation burial of Late Iron Age or Early Roman date was found.
Evidence for intensive Romano-British activity dating to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD was revealed in Area A. The Romano-British remains consisted of a system of boundary ditches which enclosed a complex of small rectilinear enclosures. No structures and few discrete features were found within the enclosures, but a large watering hole was revealed, which had been backfilled with deposits which produced very substantial finds assemblages, including over 14kg of Roman pottery, alongside ceramic building material, metalwork and a fragment of an unusual ceramic figurine. Substantial quantities of Roman finds were also recovered from the various enclosure/boundary ditches, with some evidence for industrial-type activities in the form of briquetage and iron slag. In Areas B and C, poorly dated linear features on the same alignment as the Roman features in Area A probably represent elements of a wider field system and the Iron Age C-shaped enclosure in Area B appears to have been reused at this time, with finds of iron smelting slag and furnace lining associated with small quantities of Roman pottery and ceramic building material from its upper fills material hinting that the area may have been used for metalworking during this period.
There was no evidence for Anglo-Saxon or medieval activity on the site and post-Roman remains were limited to a modern field boundary and extraction pits.
The site lies less than 500m to the north-west of the known Roman town at Kelvedon, and the results of the excavation are of considerable significance in terms of providing information on Roman activity in the hinterland of the town and on the extent and character of earlier Iron Age activity in the area.