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Tudor Hunting Lodge Part 11

smallbridge hall
A ferret has provided an unwitting link to the present for a Tudor Hunting Lodge in Wormingford.

Historians and archaeologists had no idea that such a building existed on the slopes overlooking the village and its Elizabethan Hall, until three men out hunting rabbits lost one of their ferrets.

Thanks to a radio tracking device it was wearing, the animal was soon found. But while digging it out, they also discovered along a meadow boundary, the remains of a 16th-century brick wall.
Colchester Archaeological Group were invited to investigate this anomaly.
Amazingly, they found the remnants of a Hunting Lodge which had been the subject of many folk tales over the years

CAG dig at Lodge Hills, November 2010

Excavation of Hunting Lodge foundations and base
Brickwork removed from base excavation
Well used for Drinking Water, no artifacts found at the bottom
Culvert believed to carry water
Well and Culvert
Well and Culvert to the top

CAG dig at Lodge Hills, November 2012
During November and December 2011, the site was reinstated back to farmland.
However, the Well was capped and bricked as shown above.
A plaque will eventually be mounted on the site.
October 2013, all that remains is the Notice Board and the Well


Colour Photographs of site by Alan Beales 2010 & 2011
Acknowledgement to John Moore, Colchester Archealogical Group