Highwood Quarry, Little Easton, Essex

Between the 31st August and 25th September 2020, OA East conducted an archaeological evaluation of land at Highwood Quarry, Little Easton, Essex. This was remediation work to inform the Planning Authority, ECCPS, on the archaeological character of the land at the quarry which was marked for mineral extraction.
A small sub-rectangular area was excavated revealing two phases of Iron Age archaeological remains. The first phase uncovered two Iron Age roundhouse ring gullies, which respected the alignment of a co-axial ditch system. These were surrounded by outlying pits. The second archaeological phase was represented by two overlying and parallel running northwest/southeast linear features. One small modern pit was located at the eastern side of the excavation area. Pottery recovered from Phase 1 was exclusively dated to the Middle Iron Age period with Phase 2 pottery dated to between the Late Iron Age and Early Romano-British period.
The site is a significant addition to the groups of previously investigated Iron Age settlement remains excavated at Highwood Quarry and to the west of Great Dunmow which demonstrate the presence of shifting foci of domestic activity across this period within this locality.