Anyone have any ideas what these features might be?
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.871823&lon=0.28452&z=17.8&r=0&src=msl
I spent a few years in the area and have no recollection of them at all. At first I wondered if they might be mass graves! from eg FMD- but they are far too numerous and seem to solely associated with the airport? So hypthesis No2- something to do with run-off control. Lits of pipework visible in the pic, Eastern margin of the site. Soil type is heavy clay.
No idea.
I had similar questions about this:
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.035515&lon=-3.172367&z=16.7&r=0&src=msl
People told me it was somehting to do with grouse?
To the OP
My guess, given the age of most of the stuff on VE, is [url= http://www.framearch.co.uk/stansted/ ]this.[/url] Mass archaeology which took place 2000-2004 in advance of stansted development.
If you look closer to the airport there are far more of these features.
After a little investigation, i believe its prob pipework for the drains for a new village development called [url= http://www.priorsgreen.co.uk/index.html ]Priors Green[/url]!
The local[url= http://www.littlecanfieldpc.co.uk/minutes/Little%20Canfield%20Minutes%2020_08_07.htm ] Parish Papers[/url] mention new installations of drainage being built etc...
[i]"No idea.
I had similar questions about this:
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.035515&lon=-3.172367&z=16.7&r=0&src=msl
People told me it was somehting to do with grouse?"[/i]
Looks like patches of heather that have been burnt.
If you look to the "road east and south east of the field there woul dappear to be mains drains waiting to go in. Strange pattern tho.
Looks like the work of 'Time Team'
coffeeking - I think the heather has been harvested from your piccy. I believe it helps with the regeneration of the heather as well as being fodder for animals.
I could however be totally wrong on both points. 🙂
edit - Just read CaptJon's second link... So kinda right
Looks like investigation trenches before work begins on the site.
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Remnants of an ancient civilisation of enormous sophistication, I reckon.
Is it where freight containers have been stored?
I have no idea 😉
for the first post, look above the area you linked to and there are several other fields with the same marks, some look fresh and some that look at least a year/crop season old as they are below vegetation/much fainter. It is a strange patter for ground investigation trial pits, far too close together for standard ground investigation works.
Could be intalling gravel drains to keep the farmland well drained maybe?
That looks like an archaeological evaluation. 50m by 1.9 - 2.0 m trenches. The trackmarks are the result of the 360 driving from trench to trench.
Matt
(Archaeologist)
Actually I worked on that site for a week, it's teh Stansted Evaluation, something like 2000 trenches. Went on for over a year iirc. If you look north west of the field you've highlighted you'll see more trenches.
that is all houses now, or at least planned to be. i was working on the site end of '07 where they were rounding up what was started and proposing to leave the rest due to the finance bubble thing.
interestingly the photos of the area on google earth are from 2006 and show only small evenly spaced pock-marks on the ground and the area to the NW mentioned by Andy Paice shows no signs of disturbance.
what did they find/what were they looking for, matt?
Now you're asking. Anything and everything that was there is the simple answer. Large scale evaluations like that are sampling the area for archaeological potential. I do have some former colleagues who were there for the duration could probably find out if anything interesting turned up. Think the best I found was a cremation, no idea with fragments of prehistoric (probably bronze age) pot. Soil was horrifically heavy clay on a layer of boulder clay natural and I was glad I quit 🙂
Soil was horrifically heavy clay on a layer of boulder clay natural and I was glad I quit
lol, I bet that was fun to work in 😉
The area to the NW with the older trench scars is hard up against the airport boundary, so I guess it will be something to do with expansion?
I think if you can see a scar in those photos it's something to do with the expansion 🙂 The airfield to the NE of the original link is near the bit I worked on but it was a while agio and I'd almost managed to block it from my memory 😀