16 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
here uncovered the corner of a hypocaust, and it is hoped that further
excavation may be undertaken in the near future. By searching the
heaps of picked stones, specimens of roof-tiles and pottery, including
the bottom of a vase and a fragment of a mortarium, were obtained.
Entering the brakes the party was then driven past Horham Hall
and Braxted to Elsenham, where by special arrangement the travellers
were picked up by the 7.30 express to London.
MEETING IN THE FRYERNING AND BLACKMORE
DISTRICTS (438th MEETING).
Saturday, 6th June 1914.
The parties from the London and Colchester districts assembled at
Ingatestone station before noon. Brakes were in waiting to convey the
company over the somewhat lengthy route.
The "Conductors" were Mr. Miller Christy, F.L.S., Mr. Percy Thomp-
son, Mrs. Archibald Christy and others. Mr. Warren, President, and Mr.
W. Cole, Hon. Secretary, were also present.
Ingatestone is remarkable in a geological sense for the great thickness
of the London-clay, which there attains its maximum of 530 feet thick
which is considerably more than has been proved to exist elsewhere. Two
large Sarsen Stones were seen by the corners of the road to Fryerning,
nearly opposite the "Anchor Inn," and another is in the Churchyard,
which formerly formed part of the foundations of the Church. (See
Essex Naturalist, vol xvii., p. 191.)
Ingatestone Church, with its noble red brick Tudor Tower and con-
taining the Altar Tombs of the Petre family, was cursorily inspected;
an hour glass stand, now on the north wall of the nave, was an interesting
object in the church.
From Ingatestone town, the party was driven past the Hyde to a
point where the conveyances were left, and a footpath walk taken to Mill
Green Common, where "Moore's Ditch," an earthwork of unknown age,
was inspected. It runs, in a perfectly straight line, for a distance of about
270 yards N.W. by W. and S.E. by E. across one end of Mill Green. Mr.
Christy conjectured that it might either be a pre-historic boundary-
ditch, or a defensive earthwork dug at the time of the threatened
Napoleonic invasion at the beginning of last century.
On the Common, as the outcome of shallow diggings for gravel and
sand, numerous pools exist, which would probably yield many forms of
microscopical treasures to pond-life enthusiasts.
Leaving the Common, and passing through the farmyard of Potter's.
Row Farm, the site of a Mediaeval Pottery in an adjoining field was in-
spected. This kiln-site and the pit (now a pond) from which the pot-
earth was dug by the potters were discovered by Mr. Miller Christy in
May 1914. Here in the hedge-bank of a ditch dividing Box Wood from
a very small pasture lying immediately behind the farm-house, and at a
spot about fifty yards from the eastern side of the Common, a very con-
siderable quantity of mediaeval pottery fragments were found, and excellent
pot-earth exists in the neighbourhood. On the present occasion the mem-