Pleshey Castle Excavations 1959-1963
Archive document ref.:
S/SEC/7/8
Transcription of papers
ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY
Hon. Secretary: John S. Appleby, F.R.Met.S.,
Tel:- Wivenhoe 472.
Dear Member of the Council,
Cranford House,
Elmstead,
Colchester.
Essex.
2nd January, 1960
The reports on the 1959 Pleshey excavation are attached.
Please bring these to the Meeting of the Council on
Tuesday next, 5th January, 1960, at 2.30 p.m. at Holly Trees, Colchester, when
they will be discussed in the course of the business.
May I take this opportunity of wishing you a Happy New
Year.
Yours truly,
John S. Appleby.
Hon. Secretary, E.A.S.
P.S. Subscriptions are due from 1st January, 1960.
Have you set a good example by paying yours?
Forms of Covenant may be obtained from The Hon.
Treasurer, M.L.Bennett, B.Sc.
His address is "Sharon", 15 The Commons,
Colchester.
PLESHEY CASTLE, 1959. Interim Report on Excavation.
The excavation took place during five weeks of September
and October, 1959 of which most of the last week was directed towards
filling-in. Work proceeded every day, with paid labour and volunteers, in
excellent weather, only an hour or two being lost through rain in the whole
period. Three men were employed and an average of twelve volunteers attended
daily, a total of ninety eight taking part at one time or another.
The dig, which it is hoped will be the first of several
seasons' work, was organised by Major J. Brinson and on behalf of the Essex
Archaeological Society (the first to be undertaken by that body for half a
century) and was directed as a training excavation for the Society by P. A.
Rahtz. The work was financed by donations from several individuals and organisations,
and was carried out with the help and encouragement of the owner, Mr. J. J.
Tufnell.
The site had not until previously been excavated
scientifically: some buildings were cleared in 1907 by the then owner: the work
was undertaken principally to relieve unemployment: several buildings were
cleared, and "several hundred" glazed decorated floor tiles were
removed to Langleys, and later buried *Footnote. No record of this digging was
published, but one of the buildings, on the motte, was cleared, and a plan of
its foundations published, by the Morant Club in 1921-2. Recently Mr. Tufnell
has cleared the trees from the sites which has made it possible to study the
earthworks with clarity: in the course of this work, some structures were
uncovered by tree roots: restoration work was also done on the magnificent 15th
century brick bridge which connects the motte to the Upper Bailey. The site
consists of a large and elliptical mooted motte of 80ft. maximum, height with a
kidney-shaped bailey on the south side, defended by an 18-ft. high bank and
outer moat. On the north side is the town enclosure delineated by a bank and
ditch which encompasses the whole of the modern village. Within this, adjacent
to the motte on its north side, Major Brinson has found traces of what is
apparently another cresentic bailey, which has however been largely destroyed
in antiquity: it may be the original bailey, and have been disused when the
town enclosure was made, at the same time as the kidney-shaped bailey was made.
The destroyed bailey is at a lower level than the extant one, and it is
proposed to call them the Lower and Upper Bailey respectively.
Access to the Upper Bailey is now by a gap in its outer
rampart, but it is believed that the Norman entrance was at the east end of the
bailey, whore there is an "island" in the moat, which may be an
emplacement for the centre of a double draw-bridge. Nearby is a cut-away area
in the inner moat edge, which may have been connected with the abutment of the
bridge connecting motto to bailey, and later replaced by the brick bridge. The
documentary evidence extends from the mid-12th to the later 16th century A.D. The
Norman castle may have been built c. 1145 and was "fortified" c.1180.
The castle passed into the Bohun family and thence to Thomas Woodstock, Duke of
Gloucester, who lived there in regal state until his execution in 1397. The
castle then became Crown Property, and was the home of Queen Margaret in the
15th century, when some brick-building was done, including probably the bridge.
The site lapsed alter this, and was in decay and being robbed by 1589.
The excavation was an exploratory one, designed to find
out the sequence of occupation on the site and to relate it to the
stratification at the western end of the Upper Bailey and to that of the
western rampart. Such an excavation in depth is a necessary preliminary to area
excavation, but it is inevitably dangerous and destructive of any structures
encountered, particularly those associated with medieval timber buildings,
which cannot be understood except by horizontal excavation. We compromised in
this respect by making a cutting wide enough (10 ft.) to have at least some
appreciation of the horizontal aspect of the stratification, and by meticulous
recording of all layers and features encountered: future area 'excavation would
thus not suffer in information, but only in area photography. The excavation in
depth was limited to a trench 118 x 10 ft., divided up into 10-ft. square
grids, both to obtain cross sections, and also for convenience in training. The
deepest of these had to be dug to a depth of 13 feet to reach undisturbed
ground, and gave some indications of the problems to be faced in area
excavation.
The stratification was complex, variable, and not
well-defined in details, as is to be expected on medieval sites. There are some
traces of Roman and earlier occupation, in the lower part of the "old ground
surface" but the first intensive settlement was in Norman times. It is
represented by burnt buildings, debris (including bricks 13" x 9" x 1¼“),
and domestic remains: those include much pottery which cannot be closely dated,
but on general grounds is unlikely to be earlier than the mid-late 12th
century, extending into the 13 th century. The occupation represented is
associated with the rampart and is more likely to be that following the
"fortification" of c.1180 A.D., than that of c.1145 A.D. A few similar shards and brick fragments were
found on the original ground surface under the rampart tail. The Norman
building were located, represented by post-holes and a timber-slot, associated
with a drainage ditch.
The Norman level is sealed by a make-up of clay, in
places 4-5 ft. thick, which was laid down sometime in the later 13th century to
raise the level of the ground and to grade it so that storm water would run off
easily, and thus avoid the somewhat dirty conditions evidenced in the Norman
layer.
On the surface of this make-up several buildings have
been found. On the tail of the rampart are three successive phase of minor
buildings, mostly of timber, with numerous post-holes, timber-slots, metalled
areas, and cesspits. These cover the period from the later 13th century to the
16th century, but in the absence of sealed levels only the latest phase may be
satisfactorily dated except in general terms. On the level part of the bailey a
major building has been found, with three main periods of constructions, which
cannot however be definitely related to the three periods in the minor
buildings. In the first phase of this major building the foundations were
extremely substantial consisting of deeply-founded "rafts" of rammed
gravel and clay on which were built substantial foundations of flint and later
of brick and tile. The indentification of this building must remain at present
uncertain: it might be the chapel. On its west side is a heavily metalled
roadway with ruts leading towards an area by the side of the brick bridge: the
lower levels of this road are partly sealed by the latest period of building. A
9 ft. deep cesspit, of the latest period of occupation, was excavated in this
area.
Finds have been numerous, and include a sequence of
pottery of 12th-16th century date, (of which the earliest group is completely
sealed), many finds of bronze, iron, glass, lead, and stone; and a few coins
and jettons, none of which is in a very helpful context.
The 1959 season has given a good idea of what
stratification and materials may be expected in any area excavation. It is
proposed, if funds are available to have a second season in September-October,
1960, also to be run as a training school for Essex Archaeological students. An
area excavation of the major building found in 1959 is contemplated, together
with exploratory cuttings in the area of the destroyed bank of the Lower Bailey
or of the Norman bridge abutments, if sufficient resources are available.
