Monument record BGL 049 - Land west of Church Cottages, Brightwell

Thirteen trenches were excavated on land west of Church Cottages, Brightwell, as a condition of planning consent to develop the site. Various pits and ditches were recorded which are likely to be associated with extensive field systems in the area known from air photos and suggested within the study area by the results of a geophysical survey of the site in 2013. Very few of the features identified matched positive anomalies from the survey. Archaeology was densest in the northern end of Trench 6 where four linear features were recorded, one of which was rich in artefacts of Late Iron Age and Early Roman date. Elsewhere, features were scattered and dating evidence was sparse but mainly of Roman or Prehistoric date. In Trench 8, a ditch contained late medieval or post-medieval artefacts and in Trench 10 one of three intercutting ditches contained pottery of post-Roman, possibly Saxon, date (S1).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2013 (S4)

Open area excavation across 2.14ha was undertaken in advance of the creation of a reservoir. Two previous phases of archaeological work had identified a series of Late Iron Age/early Roman ditches across the area. The excavation defined a rectilinear field system following the edge of the high ground and overlooking the valley floor to the south, which dated from the middle to late Iron Age and the early Roman period. The system consisted of a possible N-S aligned droveway with enclosures to the east and west. Five postholes found to the south of the eastern enclosure may form a six-post structure with the sixth post cut by the adjacent ditches, or a four-post structure, usually interpreted for this period as a granary. A single Early Anglo-Saxon Sunken Featured Building (SFB) with up to 6 associated postholes was found in the centre of the site. An unusual copper-alloy bracelet dating to the 5th or 6th centuries AD was found within the fill. Three oval pits containing burnt deposits, one with evidence of in situ burning, and two which contained 3rd/4th century Roman pottery may represent the only activity in the later Roman period, but are not inconsistent with features found associated with Early Anglo-Saxon activity, so may, in fact, be of this later date. Generally finds quantities were low and pottery dates spanned a broad period with small assemblages from the Bronze Age to medieval period, suggesting that this represented largely agricultural activity over a prolonged period rather than intense domestic settlement (S3).

See BGL 048 for geophysical survey results (S2)