Monument record WLB 140 - Anomalies indicating Multi period settlement activity and road on Land at Walberswick, Walberswick (CA) MON (also WESSEX GEO)

The gradiometer survey has been successful in detecting anomalies of archaeological origin across the site in the form of a large overarching road and multiple examples of settlement activity, possibly from the Saxon to post-medieval period. In addition to these, anomalies interpreted as historical landscape features have been identified, expected to be related to the site's former use as a World War II military installation. The overarching road curving its way through the site, appears to follow the same orientation as several former field boundaries as well as likely continuing towards an extant field opening to the south-east. This feature appears to form the centre of activity on site, from which the surrounding archaeology all appears to stem from. A combined series of pits and ditches have been identified in the south-eastern portion of the site. The exact origin of these features cannot be interpreted from the data alone, they may originate anywhere between the medieval period to modern activity associated with World War II. The location of these findings corresponds with the presumed location of the first church, in addition to the location of several, small, medieval finds from a fieldwalking survey. The combination of these sources and survey results means there is a possibility that the combined ditched and pitted areas of LP_002 could form the remains of a DMV. The remains of three suspected enclosures have been identified, all stemming from the overarching road structure and are expected to relate to roadside settlements or defensive installations of a similar period. The northern portion of the site also contains an abundance of interconnected linear ditches of similar orientations, expected to form the remains of a wider field system. It is not certain from the geophysical data alone as to whether this proposed field system is related to the other forms of settlement activity identified on site. Evidence of the site's former military occupation has been highlighted as a larger area of magnetic disturbance found centrally on site. The area of disturbance corresponds with the known location of military occupation, visible in aerial photography from 1941. It is expected that this disturbance has been generated because of the installation's removal and return to agricultural use. An area of possible extraction has also been highlighted to the south-west of the site. The remaining anomalies are expected to be related to either geological variation or modern activity, related to agricultural practices such as ploughing and land drainage (S1).