Watching brief report: 4 Meadow Lane, West Mersea, Essex (April 2007)

Planning permission was given to demolish the chalet on the site and to erect a three-bedroom house on its footprint. Two visits were made by an archaeologist while the groundworks were being carried out. Approximately 300mm of topsoil and subsoil had already been stripped from over most of the site. On the extreme western side of the site, where the topsoil had not been stripped off, the soil profile was as follows: 150mm of topsoil sealing 350mm of light brown silty sand subsoil, which in turn sealed 1m of orange brown natural sandy clay becoming sandier further down. Over the rest of the site, 200mm of subsoil sealed 1m of natural. There were no finds except for modern building debris and one iron object, and the site was found to be blank in archaeological terms.