7
THE ROCHFORD HUNDRED FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY GROUP
The Rochford Hundred Field Archaeology Group was formed in January, 1993, with a
view to re-establishing voluntary archaeological fieldwork in south east Essex. The
Group felt there was a significant potential in the area for this kind of activity and that
there was an urgent need for building up an experienced body of unpaid archaeologists
capable of undertaking scientific archaeological investigations as a Group, as well as
providing additional effort in support of the under-resourced professional units.
Practical archaeology appeals to a surprisingly large number of people and it was this
aspect we encouraged both as a leisure activity for the pleasure that could be derived
from it but also as a means of strengthening archaeology and increasing knowledge of the
past. Undertaking fieldwork involves an obligation to work to the highest possible
standards, and the Group is committed to organising its operations and training its
members to this end.
During its first year, the Group carried out a week-long survey and a three-week
excavation on an area of the Leigh Beck Marshes. The aim was to recover more detailed
information about the character of the estuarine settlement indicated by extensive red hill
deposits and large quantities of briquetage, pottery, animal bones, shellfish and other
finds on the foreshore.
The survey mapped the whole site and recorded the locations of numerous groups of
features each comprising a hearth and set of clay-lined tanks, believed to be associated
with a salt-making activity. The excavation included salvaging the remains of a hearth
and two sets of settlement tanks on the foreshore, and the removal of a section of
surviving bank to show an Iron Age, Roman, medieval and early modern sequence which
together formed a distinctive mound.
Post-excavation analysis was done during the winter months and included work on some
700 Iron Age and Roman sherds, 750 medieval sherds, over 1000 briquetage fragments,
and over 1000 animal bone fragments. Volume 1 of the Group Transactions, covering the
Leigh Beck operation to date, was published in late Spring 1994.
Work is continuing on the Canvey project with a landscape survey of the Island as a
whole, analysis of existing artefact collections, and the expectation of some further
salvage excavation on the Leigh Beck foreshore.
The most uncomfortable working conditions of the intertidal Canvey site were a complete
contrast to those found at the Group's 1994 site, that of the redundant and derelict church
of Pitsea St Michael. This project involved over six weeks' work, the aim being to
reconstruct and publish in due course as full a history of this beautiful old church - sadly,
now badly vandalised - as the historical and archaeological evidence would allow.
As a preliminary, a thorough search and record were made of all historical doculments
relating to the church. A full survey was carried out of the church, the graveyard and the
grave memorials. Detailed elevation drawings of the late medieval tower were prepared.
Two large trial trench excavations were undertaken inside the church with the intention of
finding evidence of structural phases predating the complete rebuilding of the sanctuary,
chancel and nave in 1871. A complex sequence of deposits representing earlier floor