RECENT PROJECTS:

MAHG has been involved in numerous projects over the years. The following sections outline some of our previous and recently completed projects.

Beeleigh Abbey

Edwins Hall

St Peter's Tower, Maldon

Cellar Survey, Maldon

Graveyard Survey, Maldon

• BEELEIGH ABBEY, MALDON:

 

Beeleigh Abbey, Beeleigh, nr. Maldon.

The Beeleigh Excavation is finally at an end after nearly 5 years. Many thanks to all who have worked on the site and especially to Trevor Ennis and Howard Brooks who have provided expert advice.

Our big tent collapsed in sympathy (or it may have been very strong gusts of wind.)  The chairman was in the tent just prior to its demise but survived after removing himself very smartly when the tent began to heave and flap.  He watched it rise into the air and then float back down and collapse.

 

HISTORY:

 

Excavations, begun in the autumn of 2001 with the kind permission of Mr & Mrs Foyle, and with financial support from the Countryside Agency and the Heritage Lottery Fund (click on HLF logo above), have resulted in the discovery of the almost complete foundations of a classic example of a Medieval Hall House comprising; parlour; central hall; and, service rooms. The central hearth was also found intact together with two later hearths, one inserted in the parlour and the other, replacing the central hearth, was built with a brick chimney against a cross passage. The latter enabled a first floor to be built.

Associated with the Hall House was a separate kitchen and two hearths. Fragments of an impressive louvre were found on the kitchen site and probably associated with it. A further hearth, dated to the mid 13th century was also discovered which was related to an earlier Hall House on the same site.

Further excavation revealed the presence of a smithy adjacent to the kitchen of the Hall House as indicated by the finding of a large quantity of nails, small metal objects, and iron slag.

The site yielded over 200 kilos of pottery including a few almost complete vessels, one of which was incised with a 'witch mark'. The number of small finds totalled well over 1,000 including an important collection of French jettons or casting counters.

An unexpected discovery in another part of the site, was a well preserved Brick Clamp providing brick either for work on the Abbey, or for the re-building/conversion of the Abbey into a private house after the Dissolution.

The foundations of another building were excavated some distance away from the Hall House and close to the Abbey site. A large hearth suggested that this was a kitchen, or a bakehouse, or a brewhouse. A further two hearths were uncovered, one against a cross passage. Some evidence was found to suggest that the building was used, in part, for malting barley.

 

 

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• EDWIN'S HALL, WOODHAM FERRERS:

The decision of the owners of this lovely moated Tudor House to build a swimming pool in 2005 gave an opportunity for MAHG members, under the direction of the Essex Field Archaeology Unit, to spend three weeks excavating the proposed pool site. Pottery finds indicated that there had been activity on the site since the 12th century, but most of the activity was post medieval. A brick building was constructed, in part, over a large cess pit which caused considerable subsidence. This was later demolished and was likely to have been the east wing of the hall constructed by Edwin Sandys who was made Archbishop of York in 1576. The most curious feature of the building was a series of interconnecting brick ducts, constructed of Tudor and 17th century bricks. They possibly formed part of a system of warm air heating incorporated into the building in the 19th century, re-using old bricks.

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• ST. PETER'S TOWER, MALDON:

Excavation within the tower of St. Peter's Church, Maldon, Essex, England, by the Maldon Archaeological and Historical Group in June 1999 revealed the remains of an early tiled floor which included a decorated tile from the Danbury tile kiln dated to the late 13th early 14th century and probably re-used form the nearby Carmelite Friary after its dissolution. A sequence of dirt floors bound with mortar bear testimony to the poverty of the church which is well documented in records and which led to its redundancy.

Clear evidence of two earlier and successive paved floors, nearly 500mm below the modern level was revealed. Both floors were presumed to be at, or about, the level of the original nave.

The lower of the two floors consisted in the main of a tiled surface. Evidence found from the dig, dating conclusions from the stylistic appearance of the tower, and occupation of the tower by the Guild of the Assumption of St. Mary lead to the conclusion that the floor of the tower was paved with reused tiles between 1536 and 1549. A gyronny patterned tile was found among plain tiles and a similarly patterned tile was found during an excavation of a tile factory at Danbury, Essex, just 6 miles from Maldon. The Danbury tile factory was in production between 1275 and 1335, (Drury and Pratt 1975), too early for the tiles to have been made for St. Peter’s tower. However, during the excavation of the nearby Maldon Carmelite Friary in 1992, Pat Ryan, who recorded and analysed the brick and tile finds, advised us that her notebook shows a sketch of an identically decorated tile associated with plain tiles, a similar association to that found in the floor of St. Peter’s tower. This raises a very real possibility that the tiles were salvaged following destruction of the Friary, soon after the Reformation in 1536 and subsequently used to lay a floor in St. Peter’s tower.

The tower is the only remaining structure of the church. The nave, which collapsed, was rebuilt by Thomas Plume to house his large collection of books on the first floor with the grammar school below. The Plume Library remains substantially as it was in  the early 17th century. The ground floor now contains the Maeldune Centre, home to the celebrated Maldon embroidery and to the Beeleigh Abbey excavation exhibition.

   Gyronny decorated tile

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• CELLAR SURVEY, MALDON:

A survey of Maldon's cellars recording size and features. Nearly one hundred cellars were inspected. Dimensioned plans, sketches of significant details and photographs of the cellars are all part of the permanent record made during the investigation. Results have been summarised in a 60 page illustrated booklet.

End view of key for wooden door

 

Detail of wooden lock in slatted door in Church House

 

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• GRAVEYARD SURVEY, MALDON:

Surveys of local Maldon churchyards were conducted to record the inscriptions on the grave markers. The Group has recorded a large number of burials and grave inscriptions from the  churchyards around Maldon.  Copies of the surveys have been passed to the church, Essex Records Office, Family History Society and the Maldon public library. Graveyards surveyed and recorded were:

• All Saints, Maldon

• St. Mary, Maldon

• St. Peter, Maldon

• United Reformed Church, Maldon

• Religious Society of Friends, Maldon

• St. Andrew, Heybridge

• St. Giles, Langford

• St. Mary, Mundon

• St. Nicholas, Hazeleigh

• Hazeleigh Graveyard, Hazeleigh

• St. Margaret, Woodham Mortimer

• St. Michael and All Angels, Woodham Walter

• All Saints, Purleigh

All Saints Parish Church, Maldon

 

The earliest graveyard burial recorded was that of Dr. Peter Chamberlen, 22 December 1683, in St. Margaret, Woodham Mortimer.

Although the Parish Register of All Saints, Maldon, records the burial of Laurence Washington, the great, great grandfather of George Washington, the first American President, the grave location is not known.

The group have now recorded 2,951 burials. Of these, there are 1,894 records with age and date of death prior to 31 December 1949. An analysis to find the percentage of deaths within certain age groups in different time periods seemed an interesting exercise.

The time scale determined as practical was fifty year periods from 1st January 1800 to 31st December 1949, plus a group which recorded all the deaths before 31st December 1799 as a single entity. The bar chart shows the results.

First of all it is interesting to note that the percentage of the burials for those over ninety years between January 1800 and December 1949 varied very little. For those over eighty years however, the percentage of burials changed dramatically for the fifty year periods analysed from 1800 to 1949.

For the period 1900 to1949, 20.8 % of burials were of persons over eighty, compared to only 10.7% for the period 1850 to 1899, and 6.3% for 1800 to 1849. A distinct improvement in the longevity of life for the modern generation.

A more significant reflection on the health of the population can be observed by comparing the deaths of the younger persons prior to 1800 and for the period 1800 to 1849. Before 1800 11.5% of the population died under the age of eleven years but between 1800 and 1849 this figure rose to 13.6%. It would be expected that as medical knowledge grew there should be a gradual reduction in infant mortality but the first half of the 19th century saw much hardship among rural communities. This can be attributed to the reduction in cottage industries such as spinning and the surplus agricultural labour in the south of England.

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