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A watching brief was carried out by GUARD Archaeology in 2025 during topsoil stripping for water main replacement in the vicinity of the recorded site of a pre-reformation chapel (NJ93SE0045). An area measuring 164 m by 19 m was monitored, and six features recorded. In the eastern end of the area were three agricultural furrows. To the west of these was a possible fire pit measuring 0.63 m by 0.6 m and 0.13 m deep: no artefacts were recovered. An east-west field boundary, 1.25 m wide, ran for over 100 m roughly east west within the eastern half of the stripped area. At the western end of the stripped area was the very degraded and truncated footprint of a structure, oriented east-west measuring 24 m by 2.9 m. Within the structure two areas of stone were set within a dark deposit which contained small cobbles, pebbles, stones and charcoal. Numerous bottle glass fragments of possibly 17th century date were recovered from this deposit, as well as several fragments of modern pottery and an iron nail. The stones included flat and subrounded types, but no bonding mortar was observed. the stones within the eastern half of the structure contained a rounded end measuring 7.9 m by 4.9 m. Those at the west end were possibly the base of a wall. Two ephemeral features located to the east and northwest sides of the structure are probably recent or natural. This stone structure is possibly the remains of, or related to the pre-reformation chapel which is indicated further to the southeast on the OS 1st edition map.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)