Monument record EWL 039 - OUTLINE RECORD: Medeival settlement site on Land East of Ashfield Rd (OAE) GEO (ASE) EVL (PCA) EXC

Excavations were undertaken on a medieval settlement site. A level of activity was indicated by a copper alloy hooked tag probably dating to the 8th/9th centuries, but the earliest evidence for settlement and agricultural activity dates to the 10th-11th centuries AD, with Late Saxon pottery recovered from two boundary ditches. An extensive field system was developed in the late 11th century and occasionally altered over the next 100 years. A series of ditches formed small enclosures that were used to manage livestock, probably sheep. Occupation intensified between the 13th and 14th centuries with at least three buildings constructed in the central part of the site. These bordered a trackway that led towards the common land to the W at Boten Haugh Green, and associated new ditches also seem to be related to livestock management. A large assemblage of pottery and small objects were recovered from features, confirming that the buildings were domestic in nature and occupied by a relatively wealthy farming family. Occupation appears to have ceased in the late 15th or early 16th century, with the land reverting back to pasture/arable. Reoccupation of the site occurred in the late 18th/early 19th century when a small cottage was built and the land was sub-divided by two field boundary ditches, as shown on historic mapping.


Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2021 (S1)

Twenty-nine evaluation trenches were excavated across the c.4ha site. The site was known to be bisected by a substantial medieval ditch, which formed part of the eastern boundary of Boten Haugh Green – a large and irregular area of common land recorded in documentary sources from at least the second half of the 12th century. The ditch had previously been identified by geophysical survey and was confirmed by the evaluation. A series of ditches to the south east of the green-edge ditch formed part of a rectilinear field/enclosure system adjacent to the medieval green. Some of the ditches contained domestic pottery of the late 12th to 14th century (mostly cooking-pots, with some possible bowls), and small amounts of animal bone (domestic and wild species), charred cereal grains, legumes and other plant macrofossils. Although no buildings or structures were identified, the recovered finds suggest occupation on or close to the site area. There was no evidence for activity during the later medieval period. However, the green-edge ditch was re-cut in the post-medieval period, perhaps around the time of the enclosure of the green in 1814. The ditch was incorporated into the field boundary system until its backfilling in the late 19th century.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2019 (S2).