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Investigations at Asheldham, Essex. An Interim Report on the Church and the Historic Landscape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

P. J. Drury  and
W. J. Rodwell
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Summary

Excavations in the church and churchyard at Asheldham revealed a complex series of building phases preceding the existing structure. Domestic occupation of the middle and late Saxon periods was followed by a timber building, interpreted as a church, with associated graves. The early structures were built alongside and aligned on a Roman road, and the cemetery associated with the first (Norman) masonry church encroached on this road, causing its diversion. The excavation of this key site has demonstrated the likely Roman date of an extensive road and field system which survives throughout the Dengie peninsula. A preliminary discussion of the historic landscape and its future potential for study is offered.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 1978 , pp. 133 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1978

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References

NOTES

1 Information from R. H. Allen, Soil Survey of England and Wales.

2 For details of the scheme see Rodwell, W. J., Historic Churches: A Wasting Asset (C.B.A. Res. Rep., no. 19. 1977), Section 8Google Scholar.

3 , R.C.H.M.Essex, iv (1923), 2–3Google Scholar.

4 By , W. J. and Rodwell, K. A.. Med. Arch, xx (1976), 180–1Google Scholar.

5 By P. J. Drury.

6 Acknowledgements. Thanks are due to the Venerable P. S. G. Bridges, Archdeacon of South- end-on-Sea, who first drew our attention to the proposed conversion scheme; to the Committee of Adventure Unlimited, and particularly the Revd. P. Elvy and Mrs. Jean Shaw, for consent to undertake the investigations and for their assistance in many ways; the Revd. S. Brown, Rector of the united benefice of Tillingham, Dengie, and Asheldham; the Inspectorate ofAncient Monuments of the Department of the Environment who, through the Essex County Council, made grants towards the cost of the excavations in 1976; Guy Wilsden for the loan of a mechanical excavator; Gordon Ager for photography; D. T. D. Clarke, F.S.A., for making available details of earlier discoveries at Asheldham Camp; and Luigi Thompson for assistance with the production of figs. 1–5. We are also very much indebted to all who took part in the work on site, particularly Mrs. Kirsty Rodwell and Messrs. Mike Astor and Peter Hawley. Dr. H. M. Taylor, V.-P.S.A. kindly read and commented upon thedraft of this report.

7 The mapping and study of ‘red hills’ in this area lags behind the work undertaken in north-east and south-east Essex. For a preliminary distribution of sites see, W. J. Rodwell, ‘Coinage, Oppida and the rise of Belgic Power in South-East Britain’, in Cunliffe, B. and Rowley, T. (eds.), Oppida: The Beginnings of Urbanisation in Barbarian Europe (B.A.R. S-n, 1976), pp. 298–301 and fig. 42Google Scholar.

8 Laver, P. G., ‘Sunecastre, or the Camp at Asheldham’, Trans. Essex Arch. Soc. (N.S.) xix (1930), 180–5.,Google Scholar

9 Colchester Museum Topographical File; V.C.H. Essex, iii (1963), 31Google Scholar.

10 CM. 62. 97. Trans. Essex Arch. Soc. (N.S.) vi (1898), 350–1Google Scholar; also op. cit. (n. 8), pl. facing p. 183.

11 By the National Monuments Record (Air Photographic Section) and the University of Cambridge Committee for Aerial Photography (BIW 57, 60, 62).

12 Christy, M., ‘On Roman Roads in Essex’, Trans. Essex Arch. Soc. (N.S.), xvii (1926), 83-100.Google Scholar The fact that these roads were largely unmetalled before the late eighteenth century (ibid, (N.S.) V (1895), 33–40 ) is hardly relevant to the origin of the over-all pattern of land division of which they form part, although Richmond seems to have held a contrary view: V.C.H., Essex, iii (1963), 31Google Scholar.

13 Rodwell, W. J., ‘Some Unrecorded Archaeological Discoveries in Essex, 1946–75’, Essex Arch. Hist, viii (1976), 236Google Scholar.

14 , W. J. and Rodwell, K. A., ‘Excavations at Rivenhall Church, Essex: An Interim Report’, Antiq. Journ. liii (1973), 219–31Google Scholar.

15 Fairweather, F. H., Aisleless Apsidal Churches of Great Britain (Colchester, 1933)Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., no. 35.

17 A Norman or late Anglo-Saxon date for the Asheldham 2 type of plan is equally possible. The former is evidenced by Albury, Surrey, and Boreham, Essex: in each instance the Saxon two-celled church was converted into a Norman three-celled building by raising the old chancel into a new axial tower:, H. M. and Taylor, J., Anglo-Saxon Architecture (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 19–20; 79–81.Google Scholar Conversely, a late Saxon date for the plan type is apparent from the axial-towered churches at Dunham Magna, Guestwick and perhaps Newton-by-Castleacre, in Norfolk: Taylor and Taylor, op. cit., pp. 217–21; 264–6; 460–2. Innone of the examples cited here, with the exception of Dunham Magna, is it known whether the eastern end terminated in an apse at any stage: there is more than a slight hint from churches in eastern England that a square east end was generally preferred in the late Saxon period, and an apsidal one in the Norman period.

18 Information kindly supplied by the excavator, Mr. Daryl Fowler.

19 Fairweather, op. cit. (n. 15), nos. 33, 50, 51.

20 R.C.H.M., Essex, i (1916), 125–7; ii (1921), 85–6; iii (1922), 225–6Google Scholar.

21 V.C.H. Essex, ii (1906), 137.Google ScholarHorkesleyhad held the other moiety of Boxted since its foundation.

22 The fragment of diaper ornament cannot be used to ‘date’ the phase 2 church, since it is not in situ in the primary fabric.

23 R.C.H.M. Essex, iii (1922), 172–3Google Scholar.

24 For the tiles see Drury, P.J. and Pratt, G.D., ‘A Late 13th- and early 14th-century Tile Factory at Danbury, Essex’, Med. Arch. xix (1975), 92–164, especially p. 158CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 R.C.H.M. Essex, i (1916), 280–2and 105–7, respectivelyGoogle Scholar.

26 Bond, F., Screens and Galleries (London, 1908), p. 24Google Scholar.

27 Rodwell and Rodwell, op. cit. (n. 14), p. 228.

28 Maps in the Essex Record Office: D/DP P24, P37.

29 E.R.O., D/A 26/1.

30 Further (unpublished) excavations in Rivenhall churchyard in 1973 revealed a succession of medieval timber buildings, clearly of domestic function, contained within a defined plot in the north-east corner of the churchyard. These structures are probably to be interpreted as successive rectory buildings; report in preparation.

31 Rodwell, W. J., ‘The Archaeological Investigation of Hadstock Church, Essex: An Interim Report’, Antiq. Journ. lvi (1976), 55–71.,CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 An archaeological survey undertaken for the Council for British Archaeology and the Department of the Environment: see Rodwell, op. cit. (n. 2).

33 Church evolution plans: Asheldham, fig. 5, p. 144: Hadstock, Rodwell, op. cit. (n. 31), fig. 3: Rivenhall, Rodwell and Rodwell, op. cit., (n. 14), fig–5.

34 Rodwell, op. cit. (n. 13).

35 Information from P. J. Crummy.

36 Bradley, R. and Hooper, B., ‘Trial Excavations on a Saxon Site at Wicken Bonhunt, Essex, 1970 –71’, Essex Journ. ix (1974), 38–56:Google ScholarWade, K., ‘The Anglo-Saxon Settlement at Bonhunt, Essex: An Interim Note’, in Rowley, T. (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Settlement and Landscape (B.A.R. vi, 1974), 74–7.Google ScholarFor a discussion of the boundaries of the kingdom see,Reaney, P.H., The Place-Names of Essex (1935), pp. xxv–xxviiGoogle Scholar.

37 Dunmore, S., et al., ‘The Origin and Development of Ipswich: An Interim Report’, E. Anglian Arch, i (1975), 57–67Google Scholar.

38 The settlement patterns and the problemsin rural archaeology in th e post-Roman period in Essex are generally similar to those recently discussed for East Anglia, but more acute in that the characteristic field scatters of middle- and late Saxon pottery are absent:, P.Wade-Martins, ‘The Origins of Rural Settlement in East Anglia’, in Fowler, P. J. (ed.), Recent Work in Rural Archaeology (Bradford-on-Avon, 1975), pp. 137–55Google Scholar.

39 Rodwell, op. cit. (n. 2), section 10.55–6. On the likely pre-Conquest origin of most of the parish churches in Colchester, and their integral relationships to the late Saxon street grid, loc. cit., section 5, esp. 5.102–3.

40 This structure and the early cemetery partly underlay the ‘domestic’ complex referred to in n. 30.

41 Med. Arch, xix (1975), 230 and fig. 91.Google ScholarIt is just possible, although less likely, that the same situation obtained at St. Michael's, Thetford: ibid, xv (1971), 130 and fig.46.

42 Butler, L.A.S., Rahtz, P.A., and Taylor, H.M.,‘Deerhurst, 1971–74’, Antiq. Journ. lv (1975), 346–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarThe study of the Rivenhall area is drawing to a close and full publication is scheduled for 1979.

43 W. J. and Rodwell, K. A., ‘The Roman Villa at Rivenhall, Essex: An Interim Report’, Britannia, Iv (1973), 115–27: see also n. 2, 'op. cit., section 6, figs. 14 and 19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 Drury, P. J., Excavations at Little Waltham (C.B.A. Res. Rep., no. 26, 1978 forthcoming), fig. 74Google Scholar; Drury, P. J. (ed.), ‘Braintree: Excavations and Research, 1971–76’, Essex Arch. Hist, viii (1976), 121–2 and fig.50Google Scholar.

45 Hart, C., The Early Charters of Essex: The Saxon Period (Leicester, 1957), p. 12Google Scholar.

46 Small parts of which are shown in detail in Rodwell, W. J., ‘The Orsett “Cock” Cropmark Site’, Essex Arch. Hist, vi (1974), 13–39, fig. l:Google ScholarDrury, P. J. and Rodwell, W. J., xcavations at Gun Hill, West Tilbury’, Essex Arch. Hist, v (1973), 48–112, esp. figs. 1 and 21Google Scholar.

47 Antiq. Journ. liii (1973), 9–15Google Scholar.