Monument record WRE 025 - Wrentham Hall, Church Street

Evaluation trenching for a planned coach house, swimming pool and tennis court within the northern part of the grounds revealed evidence for Post medieval quarrying activity in one area to the north of the house in addition to a pair of pits of a similar date and a shallow, undated, ditch closer to the boundary shared with the churchyard to the north-east. A few sherds of Roman period pottery were also collected from the upcast spoil of the latter trench as was a fragment of Roman tile with another tile fragment being a residual find in Post medieval pit. However a thorough metal detector search in and around the three trenches recovered mainly non-ferrous finds of recent date plus a Nuremberg token from the early Post medieval period. The latter find is of moderate interest as it had been pierced and therefore may have may have been modified as a piece of jewellery (S1).
Monitoring of ground works for side and rear extensions revealed remnants of the brick foundations of the mid 19th century rear part of what was then Wrentham Rectory which was partially demolished in 1954. While the core of the earliest part of the structure, which dates to the 18th century, survives as the building in its present form this phase of demolition followed by extensive works for extensions and a cellar in the mid to late 20th century caused substantial areas disturbance in the area of the new extensions and no finds or features of pre 18th/19th century date were revealed (S2).
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2013 (S3)