Chequers Green - Archaeological Evaluation

http://www.tvas.co.uk/reports/pdf/CQW08_08-12ev.pdf

Trench 13 (Plate 1)
This trench was 20.10m long and 1m deep at the south-eastern end of the trench sloping up to 0.50m at the north-west. The stratigraphy encountered consisted of 0.15-20m topsoil overlying a yellow orange brickearth. At the southern end of the trench an old water channel of post-medieval date (3) was recorded aligned north north east - south south west. This corresponds to a bend in the channel of the Pymmes Brook depicted on the First Edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1866 and 1896 (Fig. 6). Only the northern edge was exposed and thus its true width was not observed, but it was over 5.5m wide. A slot through it showed topsoil , 0.15m, sealing a lens of yellow clay silt deposit 0.20m which overlay a layer of buried soil c. 0.25m deep which in turn sealed a fill of the channel, a pale yellow silty clay (56), which was excavated to a depth of 0.90m and not bottomed at this depth.

Trench 20 (Plate 2)
This trench was 21.10m long and 0.7m deep, orientated south west - north east. The stratigraphy encountered in this trench consisted of 0.5m of topsoil above 0.10m of subsoil over a clayey brickearth. A ditch aligned north east - south west was observed, A slot (2) excavated through it showed it to be shallow, over 1.2m wide but only 0.20m deep, and from its orange grey sandy clay fill (55) a sherd of red glazed post medieval earthenware was retrieved.

Trench 23 (Plate 3)
This trench was 20.56m long and 0.45m deep, orientated south east - north west. The stratigraphy encountered in this trench consisted of 0.5m of topsoil above 0.10m of subsoil over a clayey brickearth. A continuation of ditch 2 was observed aligned north east - south west. A slot (1) excavated through it showed it to be over 1.60m wide and 0.58m deep. It contained three fills (52, 53 and 54) and from its upper fill a light brown silty clay (52) four sherds of creamware, two sherd of pearlware of mid 18th century-early 19th century date and five sherds of red earthenware 1550+, a tin glazed sherd of 17th-19th century date , three clay pipe stems, a sherd of green bottle glass, three iron nails, two tile fragments, wood fragment (non waterlogged) and two burnt flint fragments were retrieved.

Trench 26 (Plate 4)
This trench was 29.0m long and 0.61m deep, orientated south – north. The stratigraphy encountered in this trench consisted of 0.5m of topsoil above 0.10m of subsoil over a clayey brickearth. A ditch aligned north east - south west was observed (4) which was probably the continuation of the ditch 1 and 2 recorded in trenches 20 and 23. This was recorded at 2.80m wide.