Site Event/Activity record ESF21873 - Excavation - Orford Castle

English heritage commissioned a series of investigations at Orford Castle in late 2002/early 2003. These included two trial trench excavations undertaken by Suffolk County Council’s Archaeological Service Field Team. These were carried out in conjunction with a geophysical survey (undertaken by Essex County Council Field Archaeology Unit) and a topographical survey (carried out by English Heritage’s in-house surveying team). Trench 1 was excavated to the north of the keep in December 2002 with a view to locating and characterising the curtain wall. Remains of the robbed-out wall’s foundations were located some 7m north of the keep. The wall was c. 3.4m wide and its construction was found to be of probable 13th century date. Beyond this, with its centre some 20m from the keep, a large (c. 10.00m wide) ditch was found to have at least 13th/14th century origins, although excavation was difficult due to the unconsolidated nature of the deposits. The large outer bank (centred some 35m from the keep) was found to have been largely the result of modern landscaping activity. Trench 2 was located in the area of the causeway, some 40m to the south-south-west of the keep, in an area where masonry remains are visible above ground today. This trench identified two well-preserved buried walls, which would have formed an unusual 4m wide entrance passageway extending beyond the curtain wall. No evidence of a causeway surface was encountered at depths of up to 1.7m below the existing ground level and it is assumed that any surviving causeway surface was beyond the depth of excavation. The trial trench investigations, along with a previous programme of monitoring undertaken by SCCAS, suggest that the curtain wall was relatively close to the keep, and that the bailey would have been correspondingly small. It is notable that this limited programme of interventions appears to confirm the accuracy of John Norden’s plan of, produced during a survey of the Manor of Sudbourne undertaken in 1600-02.