Monument record BLB 081 - Blythburgh Priory

The re-opening and reassessment of some of the Time Team trenches along with the excavation of new targeted trenches (BLB 076) at Blythburgh Priory (BLB 001) (S1).

The principal findings were as follows:
• The presence of a cloister to the north of the church was confirmed with the ambulatory floor surface at a lower level to that of the adjacent church. The link between the two was provided by steps down from the north transept and probably the nave.
• A small section of the pre-priory north nave wall had survived under a large Ash tree stump removed as part of the project.
• The opening between the north nave wall and the north west tower drum pier had been blocked while the church was still in use. A similar opening to the south had the vestiges of steps leading up out of the nave.
• A bedding layer for a tile floor was identified in four separate trenches within the pre-priory phase nave. However, the layer post-dated plaster facing on the latest phase of building and was, therefore, not contemporary with, but later than the 11th or 12th century building.
• The south west corner of the south transept was found to be well preserved, but the eastern side had been completely robbed out as had the south east pier of the crossing tower.
• A clasping buttress recorded on the south west corner of the south transept suggested that there was no south cloister. However, it seems likely that a structure of some kind was present immediately to the south of the nave as an opening through the south transept wall immediately south of the tower did not appear to have accommodated a door frame.
• The floor level within the north transept appears to have been truncated and a series of steps constructed from re-used limestone mouldings were inserted, probably during the robbing/quarrying of the priory complex to obtain aggregate for road building.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2012 (S2)