Monument record ADT 109 - Cropmarks of settlement enclosures of uncertain date separated out of ADT 001

April 2016. Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Beauty National Mapping Programme.
The cropmarks of settlement enclosures of uncertain date are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S3). These cropmarks were previously recorded under ADT 001 – a scheduled area settlement cropmarks of probable later prehistoric or Roman date – due to the fact that clearly represented a separate phase. Due to the complexity and nature of the cropmarks it was hard to completely split the cropmarks relating to the two (or more) phases. The date of this phase is uncertain. Comparing the morphology of the site with recently excavated sites within Suffolk could suggest both a Middle Bronze Age and Saxon to medieval date.
The site consists of a broadly rectilinear enclosure complex with quite significant evidence for internal subdivisions, associated boundaries, trackways and possible structures. The presence of large sub-rectangular pit-like features, possible sunken-features buildings, within the southern enclosure could indicate an early medieval/Saxon settlement within the site. The clearest of these possible structures were mapped and an extent-of-area defines the spread more generally. A number of ring ditches within this area may also relate to contemporary structures or enclosures, however they could feasibly also relate to roundhouses associated with the earlier phase of the site or even Bronze Age round barrows.
The cropmarks recorded under this number are aligned more broadly with the medieval to post medieval landscape, than the remainder of those still recorded under ADT 001. This part of the wider cropmark complex also coincides with the location of a medieval (C15th -16th) pottery scatter (ADT 001/ MSF2752). These finds are broadly located in this area of enclosures and would suggest that this part of the site continues in use until the later medieval period. The enclosures do share some similarities those identified by geophysics and aerial photographs at the Saxon settlement complex at Rendelsham (RLM 013/RLM 072). Alternatively these enclosures may relate to a Roman to Saxon date phase of settlement on top of earlier prehistoric settlement (ADT 001) and the medieval finds may be unrelated to the cropmark remains.
However it is also worth noting the striking similarities between these enclosures and those excavated at Fordham Road, Newmarket, and dated to the Middle Bronze Age (NKT 047) (S4).
S. Horlock (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 20th April 2016.