Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 491: summary

An archaeological evaluation and an historic building survey at ‘Imbirds’, Souther Cross Road, Good Easter, Chelmsford, Essex May and July 2008
by Ben Holloway and Howard Brooks

Date report completed: October 2008
Location: 'Imbirds’, Souther Cross Road, Good Easter, Chelmsford, Essex
Map reference(s): TL 6269 1214 (c)
File size: 32541 kb
Project type: Historic building survey and trial- trenching evaluation
Significance of the results: -
Keywords: rubbish pit, medieval architecture, st andrew

Summary. The historic building survey describes a late 18th- or early 19th-century barn with re-used 12th- to 13th-century timber elements, and a group of 19th- to 20th-century farm buildings. An evaluation by three trenches uncovered two 19th-century rubbish-pits which may be contemporary with the last few decades of the life of a house which stood here in 1623 but had been demolished prior to 1839. Ten medieval architectural fragments found in a residual context under the piggery yard almost certainly derive from the nearby church of St Andrew. Documentary sources indicate a 12th-century origin for this site, but the date of the moat (now mostly filled in) is not known. Apart from the architectural fragments, no material contemporary with or pre-dating the 1623 house was revealed during this evaluation.