Great St Mary's Church, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire (OASIS ID: heritage1-199716)

As part of the faculty requirements, the Heritage Network was commissioned to undertake a programme of archaeological monitoring during the groundworks for subsidence investigation at Great St. Mary's Church, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. The study area lies in the central aisle of the church nave, centred at NGR TL 48500 14822 (Figure 1 and 2). The groundworks consisted of an area of ground reduction, which measured 16m in length and 2m in width, in the central aisle of the church. The ground was reduced by 0.40m across the whole area, removing the existing tiled surface. The stratigraphy exposed in the sections below the tiles comprised a layer of light grey silt backfill, >0.40m in depth (Plate 3). The natural substratum was not reached during the present works (Figure 2 and 3, Plate 1). Three brick built structures were revealed in the excavation. Red brick vault [101] was revealed in the southwest corner of the trench and was orientated E-W. It measured >2.5m (exposed length) by >0.8 (exposed width) by >0.15m deep (exposed depth) (Figure 3, Plate1). The bricks appeared to be handmade and were laid in stretcher courses E-W. Brick vault structure [102] was located to the immediate north of [101] and lay below ledger stone 16 (Figure 3, Plate 2). It consisted of what appeared to be red handmade bricks laid in stretcher courses. It measured 2.5m by >0.4m wide by >0.2m deep (exposed depth). Rectangular brick structure [103] was located to the east of [102] and consisted of red machine manufactured reclaimed bricks, broken to fit and laid in >2 stretcher courses, orientated N-S (Figure 3, Plate 3). This structure was much later than the burial vaults although its purpose was unknown. During the groundworks 17 disarticulated human bone fragments and a late post-medieval pottery sherd were uncovered (Plate 4). These were reburied after the work was complete. No other archaeological features or deposits were revealed during the work