Monument record FNG 009 - Hoggett Lay; West End Farm (Un)

More or less level platform with shorter grass, 36m N to S by 21.5m E to W in a permanent pasture field on West End Farm. The area has been deliberately levelled and there are steep scarps to the W and N. There is a pond at the SW corner of the platform, near the hedge. The E side of the platform is bounded by a very clear sunken feature (7m wide and 0.4m deep at its maximum), which runs from the top of the field towards a seasonal water course at the bottom.
Field recorded as Hoggett Lay in 1840, Haggerts in 1656. Adjoins fields called Camps hall meadow and Campshall Yard (1656), later Council Meadow and Yard (1840). Nothing is shown on the 1840 Tithe Map and Mr Williams, the farmer, says that there is no memory of a building there in his family, who have farmed there since 1919.
Trial excavation in 1991 failed to detect any sign of a structure on the platform. The sunken feature turned out to be a ditch 2.4m wide x 1.1m deep, which bounds the E side of the platform. The eastern, outer, face of the ditch is faced with large flint and chalk pebbles. Very little in the way of dateable material was recovered - the small number of IA and Rom sherds found are probably residual, as may be the small amount of Med pottery. The pond in the SW corner measures approximately 10m N-S x 6m E-W x 90cm deep, with a stone kerb on the W side and a cobbled base (S1).
See also IA, Rom & Med.