120
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
grateful to the pit manager, Mr. French, and his assistant, Mr.
Cain. Voluntary labour for the excavation was given by members
of the West Essex Archaeological Group and the Hornchurch
Historical Society.
The ditched enclosures demonstrated at Corbets Tey are
apparently those of a 1st century farmstead. The exact location
is at map reference TQ 558 847, on a spread of gravel of the
middle or Taplow terrace of the Thames; it lies immediately west
of the grounds of Harwood Hall. The extent of the site was
realised when gravel digging operations required the removal of
topsoil from the immediate area. A complex of infilled ditches
was at once revealed, dark earth against the almost orange sur-
face of fresh gravel. Members of the Hornchurch Historical
Society removed a number of burial groups from the area west of
the principal enclosure ditch prior to the commencement of
operations by the Passmore Edwards Museum, but had made no
detailed examination of the ditches or of the areas which they
enclosed. The graves from which the burial groups were removed
were as easily distinguishable as the ditch alignments. It is
interesting to note that although a number of sites, apparently
of this type have been noted on the 1960 air cover of the county of
Essex, this site is not visible on the same series of photographs
despite the fact that conditions appear to have been favourable.
The ditches, exposed by gravel digging, formed a complex of
exposures as shown at Fig. 1. It was at once clear from its
dimensions that the rhomboidal enclosure near the road at the
northern end of the site was the most important visible structure.
On this consideration it was decided to scrape the whole area
inside this structure and to section its ditches at several points. A
mechanical sweeper was provided by the gravel company and the
whole area was roughly swept by this means; it was then scraped
mechanically to reduce the time taken by hand methods. Since,
at this time, gravel digging was encroaching on the enclosure area,
it was necessary to speed up the process of excavation by any
means available.
A theodolite, survey was made and a grid of 10 metre squares
laid out to coincide with the National Grid, using the 1/2500 plan
TQ 5584 as a basis. Throughout this report the numbers of
squares are taken as the grid reference of their S.W. corners. Cut-
ting I was laid out to section the main ditch, which will be
referred to as the House Ditch, near its northern extremity, and
Cutting IV to provide a second section across a disturbed area
associated with the House Ditch on its eastern side. A section
begun by the Hornchurch Historical Society, and numbered by
them IA was recut to provide a reference on the south side of the
enclosure. Careful cleaning of the interior by hand produced a
series of post hole structures whose significance is considered
below. Further sections were made in the course of excavation
through all the other main ditches.