This list of archaeological sites includes finds and excavations that have taken place in the area now covered by the Thurrock unitary authority. The list is arranged by location and then chronologically by the date of the discovery or excavation. The archaeological finds and features cover all periods from the paleolithic to the 20th century. Most editions of Panorama (the Journal of the Thurrock Local History Society) contain further information about local archaeology. A brief review of archaeology in Thurrock by the Mucking weekenders is in an article by Margaret Jones in Panorama 24.[1] There is a fuller account of archaeology in Thurrock between 1954 and 2002 (including reminiscences of the Mucking excavation) in Thurrock Gold published by the Thurrock Local History Society.
Recent editions of Essex Archaeology and History contain short reports of archaeological activity in Essex (including Thurrock) during the previous year. These reports include trial excavations and surveys that revealed no significant features or finds and which are not included in this list.
This list does not include most individual finds housed in the Thurrock Museum. A list of palaeolithic and neolithic finds was published in Panorama - Journal of the Thurrock Local History Society, 3, 1958. Many Romano-British and Saxon finds in the museum are listed in The Archaeology of Thurrock: Romano-British and Saxon by Randal Bingley (supplement to Panorama - the Journal of the Thurrock Local History Society, 1973).
Sites of archaeological finds or excavations
Aveley
multi-period finds and features (Iron Age to Saxon) (1956)[2]
A Roman oven containing three complete pots, fragments of others and a small clay lamp found south of the road between Chadwell and West Tilbury (1922)[7]
Medieval rubbish pit with sherds of medieval coarse ware and Mill Green ware (2004). [22]
Evidence of occupation during the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman as well as farming in the early Anglo-Saxon discovered by an appraisal prior to development at Dry Street (2006).[23][24]
Grays
Collection of clay pipes found during demolition of the east side of the High Street.[25]
Orsett crop mark complex; fieldwalking identified worked flints, pottery, tile, glass and one large building stone. Finds demonstrated the growth of nearby settlement, in the post-medieval period (2019).[43]
Purfleet
Sites listed under West Thurrock
South Ockendon
South Ockendon Hall; investigation of apparently Romano-British mounds (1954 and 1961)[2]
Mill House Farm; Bronze and Iron Age pottery and Late Bronze Age and Saxon settlement evidence such as ring ditches, enclosure ditches, gullies, pits and postholes to the east of Chadwell St Mary (2010 - 2014)[63][64][65] (Note: Although the current postal address of this site is Chadwell-St-Mary, it is in the historic parish of West Tilbury.)
Notes
^Jones, Margaret. "The Mucking Weekenders". Panorama. 24.
^ abcdefghijklmTerry Carney, Fifty Years of Thurrock Archaeology (in Thurrock Gold, Thurrock Local History Society, 2002)
^Stuart Foreman and David Maynard, A late Iron Age and Romano-British farmstead at Ship Lane, Aveley; excavations on the line of the A13 Wennington to Mar Dyke road improvement, 1994-5 (Essex Archaeology & History, 33 (2002), pp123-56)
^Bidulph, Edward; Foreman, Stuart; Stafford, Elizabeth; Stansbie, Dan; Nicholson, Rebecca (2012). London Gateway:Iron Age and Roman Salt Making in the Thames Estuary. Oxford Archaeology.
^H Toller, An interim report on the Orset Cock enclosure (Brittania, 11, 1980)
^GA Carter, Excavations at the Orsett "Cock" enclosure, Essex (East Anglian archaeology report, 86, Chelmsford: Essex County Council, 1998. viii, p 184), but see A blog by Geoff Carter for a re-interpretation.