Monument record BSE 703 - Town ditch and bank at 81 Guildhall Street, Bury St Edmunds (BA) EVAL and MON

2021: An archaeological evaluation and monitoring identified the town ditch within the evaluated western area, with its associated bank. Little remained of the bank itself, which would have originally been fairly substantial due to the projected depth of the town ditch itself, which is suggestive of the bank material being removed from the site for uses elsewhere as either building material or lime production.
The ditch, although a full profile could not be gleaned due to health and safety concerns, runs on its projected alignment from earlier nearby investigations such as BSE 179, BSE 295 and BSE 363. The earliest dumping/silting fill 1006 encountered produced abraded pottery dating to the 15th – 16th centuries and evidence of animal butchery possible for horn production nearby. Later fills within the ditches sequence show the ditch going into disuse, with no maintenance occurring and deliberate backfilling, suggestive of the adjacent St Andrews Street road expansion within the post-medieval period.
The edge of a probable cellared building footing was encountered within the eastern end of the site which might represent yarn production structures or stables of 18th/19th century date. A buried topsoil and sub-soil encountered within trench 1 pre-date both the town ditch and associated bank. Although no finds were recovered from these, they likely owe their origins to early medieval agricultural practices located on the periphery of the occupied town. Two smaller areas monitored directly north and south of 81 Guildhall Street within the sites bounds produced only heavily disturbed areas with a mixed topsoil containing post-medieval and modern CBM. These areas both appear to be heavily landscaped, no doubt during the construction and expansion of 81 Guildhall Street. (S1)


Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2021 (S2)