Grange Lane, Essex
Birds-eye reconstruction of the middle Iron Age farmstead from the south, Looking north. Illustration: Daniel Secker
Situated just east of Great Dunmow, the Grange Lane site was one of the more complete Iron Age settlements encountered by archaeological excavations in advance of the construction of the new A 120 in 2000-2003 (Timby et al 2007, 1). The settlement consisted of an oval ditched enclosure containing the site of a large roundhouse to the east and a smaller one, perhaps an ancillary structure, to the west. Outside the enclosure, two parallel ditches may have represented a droveway. Post-holes at the entrance to the enclosure may have been of a structure associated with livestock management. Pollen samples from the terminals of one of these ditches suggested the site was situated in scrubland, but that there was a nearby cereal cultivation (ibid, 52-6).
The farmstead probably housed a single extended family, here depicted herding sheep down the droveway into the enclosure. While post-holes indicated an entrance structure, there was no evidence of an internal palisade around the enclosure; the latter may however have been provided with a fence, traces of which have been truncated. It is uncertain where the cereals evidenced by pollen sampling were cultivated. Their location to the north of the farmstead is guesswork, as are the hedges dividing the fields.
Reference
Timby, J. Brown, R. Biddulph, E. Hardy, A and Powell, A, 2007, A Slice of Rural Essex: Archaeological Discoveries from the A120 between Stansted Airport and Braintree Oxford-Wessex Archaeology Monograph 1. Salisbury: Oxford-Wessex Archaeology
Situated just east of Great Dunmow, the Grange Lane site was one of the more complete Iron Age settlements encountered by archaeological excavations in advance of the construction of the new A 120 in 2000-2003 (Timby et al 2007, 1). The settlement consisted of an oval ditched enclosure containing the site of a large roundhouse to the east and a smaller one, perhaps an ancillary structure, to the west. Outside the enclosure, two parallel ditches may have represented a droveway. Post-holes at the entrance to the enclosure may have been of a structure associated with livestock management. Pollen samples from the terminals of one of these ditches suggested the site was situated in scrubland, but that there was a nearby cereal cultivation (ibid, 52-6).
The farmstead probably housed a single extended family, here depicted herding sheep down the droveway into the enclosure. While post-holes indicated an entrance structure, there was no evidence of an internal palisade around the enclosure; the latter may however have been provided with a fence, traces of which have been truncated. It is uncertain where the cereals evidenced by pollen sampling were cultivated. Their location to the north of the farmstead is guesswork, as are the hedges dividing the fields.
Reference
Timby, J. Brown, R. Biddulph, E. Hardy, A and Powell, A, 2007, A Slice of Rural Essex: Archaeological Discoveries from the A120 between Stansted Airport and Braintree Oxford-Wessex Archaeology Monograph 1. Salisbury: Oxford-Wessex Archaeology