Monument record CAC 035 - Household Waste Centre, Hadenham Road

Evaluation (Nov 2005) and excavation Feb-March 2006) revealed Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age circular enclosure (of circa 35m diameter with entrance to west) with internal round house and features. Also Early Bronze Age (?) pit, with unique jet plaque and parts of small collared urn, outside enclosure and series of extraction pits (also of LBA/EIA date?). Summaries in SCCAS website (Oct 2006) & (S1, S2, S3).
2006: An excavation was carried out following a trial-trench evaluation. The drift geology of the site is Lowestoft Till overlying glaciofluvial sand. There was no evidence to indicate that the site was occupied in the Neolithic period and the only find that is potentially of that date is a single sherd of Beaker pottery (Later Neolithic / Earlier Bronze Age) from a small pit or posthole. Earlier Bronze Age activity is represented by a pit that contains an important finds assemblage (including part of a collared urn, a flint knife, and a jet ornament of national significance) but which is not sufficient to indicate permanent occupation of the site. An increase in pit digging in the Middle Bronze Age suggests that the site was used more intensively at that time, although no buildings or structures of that date have been identified. The site was certainly occupied by the Later Bronze Age / Earlier Iron Age, as indicated by a roundhouse inside a ditched enclosure, two linear ditches, one or more external hearths and widespread pits. The site seems to have been abandoned by the Later Iron Age and was not obviously used during the Roman period, although a large quarry pit might have been dug at that time. The site was re-occupied in the Early Anglo-Saxon period, although the evidence for this is confined to a localised area within the (partially backfilled) quarry pit mentioned above. There is no evidence to indicate medieval occupation, and in the post-medieval period it is likely that the site was in agricultural use and was exploited for clay extraction for the brick-making industry (S4).
Note: Site given Carlton Colville parish code but actually in Gisleham parish.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2005 (S5).
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2006 (S6).