A small, late Anglo Saxon church was excavated in the grounds of St John’s Abbey. The church was demolished c.1095 to make way for the Norman abbey <1>. The disturbed natural sand inside the church produced a sherd from the shoulder of a Thetford-type jar. Another sand layer associated with the church produced only early medieval sandy ware <2>. No Thetford-type wares were associated with the destruction of the abbey by fire in 1133 or found in contexts immediately post-dating the fire. However, the entire pottery collection from this site was quite small. <3>

Note. Crummy's Anglo-Saxon Site L (1981, p.12 & Fig. 2) plots at the same location (TL 99892479). Crummy records, 'Four grass-tempered, undecorated sherds were found during the archaeological excavations on the site of St John's Church in 1972. These cannot be closely dated. 'It seems possible that these could relate to the Anglo-Saxon cemetery (known from finds) to the south-east around Mersea Road (see MCC2642).<4>