An archaeological watching brief at the Royal Mail Braintree Delivery Office, Lakes Road, Braintree, Essex: April-May 2009

Monitoring work was conducted at the site as a result of earlier evaluation
work. An area measuring approximately 23 x 15m square (Area 1) and
located to the west of the earlier evaluation trenches T1-T2 (CAT Report
499), was monitored during reduction and levelling works prior to the
construction of a temporary car-park (Figs 1-2). The car-park surface
consisting of patchy tarmac hardtop (L1); this sealed a compacted deposit
of dry mix concrete and hardcore (L2) used as bedding for the parking
surface. On the eastern side of the reduced area, L2 directly sealed the
natural geological horizon (boulder clay L4), but, on the western side of the
reduced area, a thin deposit of accumulation material was present (L3),
sealing natural. Minor archaeological features in the reduced area were
concentrated along its northern edge, and consisted of pits (F14-F17)
datable to the 19th/20th century.
Pits F15 and F16 had been truncated by a substantial modern pit (F18).
F18 contained modern glass and plastic. The site was previously occupied
by warehousing and workshops, and it is likely that F18 is associated with
this previous industrial activity.
In addition to the reduction work, monitoring was also undertaken as
contractors dug a service trench to re-route an existing sewer run outside
the footprint of the proposed building. The new service trench was 1.4m
deep by 500mm wide, and, as with the area reduction, was excavated
through the car-park hardstanding (L1) and base layer (L2). There was no
evidence of the accumulation horizon (L3) which was seen during the
evaluation; this had probably been removed by modern terracing. Most of
the trench was excavated through the natural boulder clay (L4). No
significant archaeological features were observed in the trench, but there
was a modern brick and concrete foundation similar to those found during
the evaluation (CAT Report 499). As in the evaluation, all of the
archaeological features contained material, including brick and peg-tile
fragments, which indicates a post-medieval if not modern date for them.
There was no evidence of medieval activity. If it existed, it was probably
removed by modern terracing. The features observed during the watching
brief, as in the earlier evaluation, were post-medieval and modern (18th or
19th century) and appear to relate to Parsonage Farm, which occupied the
site into the mid 20th century.