Monument record SUT 292 - Possible building and ring ditch, Little Haugh, Sutton SUMO (GEO) TT / ASE (TP)

2017: Magnetometry survey identified potentially significant archaeological features, including a possible large building, ring ditch and other likely multi-period activity, including a sizable area near the building of unknown function (S1).

2019: A magnetometry survey and electromagnetic conductivity meter survey in 2017/18 revealed a large, clearly defined largely rectangular feature close to the east bank of the River Deben. In 2019, a trial trench of 5x2m, cutting across one edge of the feature revealed it as a cut in a homogeneous clay deposit filled with sand. The bottom surface of the cut was irregular, with linear ruts. There was no sign of any in situ building or flooring material, nor any building rubble remains. Archaeological finds were sparse, small, abraded pottery sherds from various periods and likely to be have moved to that location by downslope movement, flooding or other mechanisms. It is suggested that the feature was a rectangular clay pit; on the 19th century Tithe maps there are records of nearby kilns. The sandy fill appeared to be from several deposit events. The shell inclusions suggest the deposits are likely a result of major flooding events by the Deben, such as those experienced in the Middle Ages. The feature is higher than the coastal flooding levels reached by the 1953 and 2013 (S2).

2024: Test Pit transect survey. The results of the test pit excavation provide some insight into archaeological strata in this zone as well as facilitating the recovery of a range of material dating from the Neolithic to Bronze Age and 11th to 20th centuries. The test pits commonly encountered a ploughsoil-subsoil sequence with the exception of Test pit 14 where a layer and possible posthole of potential medieval date were recorded. Test pit 5 and 6 targeted the large north-south oriented geophysical anomaly and encountered a deep mixed soil which continued beyond 1.0m BGL, while Test pit 6 encountered a deeper soil overlying possible red crag. The soils in both test pits produced industrial ceramics of 19th to 20th-century date; the anomaly is thought likely to relate to a 19th to 20th-century clay extraction zone. Further material recovered from ploughsoil included a small group of Neolithic/Bronze Age lithics, mainly debitage from tool production but also a fine blade and end scraper. No ceramic of prehistoric
to Roman date was recovered. For material of post-Roman date, of note is a sherd of 9th to 11thcentury Thetford-type Ipswich ware, as well as a larger group of Late medieval to transitional ware pottery of 14th to 16th-century date. This group included a number of wasters joined by a possible fragment of kiln furniture. Little Haugh had previously been identified as a possible production site of LMT ceramic, and these sherds may have been dispersed through nightsoiling and ploughing activity; likewise, groups of ceramic of post-medieval to 20th-century date.