An archaeological evaluation and an historic building survey at ‘Imbirds’, Souther Cross Road, Good Easter, Chelmsford, Essex May and July 2008

The historic building survey describes a late 18th- or early 19th-century barn with re-used 12th- to 13th-century timber elements, and a group of 19th- to 20th-century farm buildings. An evaluation by three trenches uncovered two 19th-century rubbish-pits which may be contemporary with the last few decades of the life of a house which stood here in 1623 but had been demolished prior to 1839. Ten medieval architectural fragments found in a residual context under the piggery yard almost certainly derive from the nearby church of St Andrew. Documentary sources indicate a 12th-century origin for this site, but the date of the moat (now mostly filled in) is not known. Apart from the architectural fragments, no material contemporary with or pre-dating the 1623 house was revealed during this evaluation.