Monument record LMD 261 - OUTLINE RECORD: Test pits as part of HEFA scheme (ACA) Test pits

Eleven test pits were excavated in the southern half of Long Melford these yielded a large amount of Roman pottery, building on what is already known about the Roman town in the village and the Roman pottery that has been identified from previous test pitting in the village. No Late Saxon pottery was recorded from the 2015 test pitting and only two 2015 test pits yielded medieval pottery that continues to suggest that the Late Saxon and medieval occupation of Long Melford was spread out along a lot of the length of the village, with almost two separate areas of settlement; one in the north around the church and one in the south. Many more test pits produced later medieval pottery and work continues to suggest that the village was not greatly affected by the Black Death during the 14th century and that the two separate foci began to become one settlement. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2015 (S1).



Thirty-seven test pits were excavated during a community excavation project undertaken as part of the BBC TV documentary ‘The Great British Story’ (broadcast summer 2012), a follow up to ‘Story of England’ broadcast in 2010 during which ACA supervised test pit excavations in Kibworth Harcourt (Lewis 2009, 51-3).
Long Melford lives up to its name, as it is indeed a very long settlement – today extending as a linear row for nearly 2 miles from one end to the other; it is one of the longest villages in England. It is located mostly on the E bank of the River Stour, the county boundary between Suffolk and Essex. The parish church lies at the very N end of the present settlement, in an area somewhat cut off from the rest of the village by open land around Melford Hall and a large triangular village green. The church is nearly 1km from the River Stour, and this part of the settlement does not sit within the valley, rather it occupies a spur of higher land between two smaller valleys to its N. Settlement in this area is today predominantly arranged along Westgate Street (running in a westerly direction S of the church) and around the W side of the green. S of Melford Hall, the pre 20th century settlement is arranged as a double row either side of a N–S orientated street which is notably wide for most of its length, for around c.750m S from the point at which it meets Bull Lane (which runs out of the village in an easterly direction S of Melford Hall).
The vast majority of the pottery recovered in 2011 was of Romano-British date, providing clear evidence for a major settlement of urban status. Romano-British pottery was found throughout the present settlement, but was particularly concentrated in the area S of Melford Hall. No pottery of identifiably 2nd–4th century date was found N of Bull Lane. In the S of the present village, pit LME/11/36 revealed the metalled surface of a road dated by pottery to 1st–3rd century AD.
This large Romano-British settlement does not seem to have survived the end of the Roman period: not a single sherd dating to AD 400-850 was recovered from any of the pits. This picture seems to change in the later Anglo-Saxon period as three pits (LME/11/01, LME/11/05 and LME/11/03) produced sherds of Thetford Ware. However, in only one case did this amount to more than one small sherd. It is nonetheless interesting to note that these three pits are all located in the same part of the landscape, just south of the midpoint of the present settlement, and it seems likely that they do represent some slightly more intensive activity in this area in the late Anglo-Saxon period, most likely to be settlement. No material of this date was recovered from any of the pits in the N part of the village around the church and green.
The volume of pottery recovered increases significantly in the post-Conquest period, although it is by no means consistently high: pits LME/11/36, LME/11/37 and LME/11/39 produce volumes indicative of settlement in the southernmost part of the present village, with little evidence for intensive activity until LME/11/01, LME/11/05 and LME/11/08 clustered together c.500m to the N produced copious quantities of 12th–14th century ceramics. N of this, two distinct foci are apparent, one S of the church (LME/11/19) and the other nearly 0.5km N of the church along the northern extent of the High Street (LME/11/23 and LME/11/24). Although the number of excavated pits is still small, given the vast extent of the village footprint, it is nonetheless worth noting that the evidence to date does not point incontestably to the presence of a large nucleated village in this area at this time, rather, perhaps to a succession of smaller settlements strung out along the river valley road.
The most notable pattern observable in the data from Long Melford, however, is that of the 15th and 16th centuries: the volume of pottery of this recovered is extremely high, from all parts of the present village. All bar eight of the excavated pits produced material of this date, many more than in the 12th–14th century, and in nearly all of the pits, considerable quantities of pottery was recovered. This is in stark contrast to nearly all other University of Cambridge Currently Occupied Rural Settlement (CORS) test pitting projects in the eastern region, where the pattern is more commonly of a considerable drop in the volume of pottery recovered. In the later medieval period, Long Melford really does seem to have been as long as it is today. It is well known that Long Melford derived considerable wealth from the cloth-making industry in the later medieval period, but to see this prosperity reflected so very strongly in the excavated data, which reveals a vibrantly thriving and expanding settlement, is striking – especially as this trajectory appears to be so very different to most other rural communities in the eastern region of England. Certainly, no similar late medieval surge is evident in Long Melford’s nearest neighbour in the University of Cambridge test pitting project, the nearby small town of Clare.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2011 (S2).