Monument record BUT 002 - Butley Abbey: Butley Priory (Un)

Field system adjoining Butley Abbey remains. Appears to be generally aligned to extant features. Possibility of small sub-divisions (S1).

April 2015. Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty National Mapping Programme.
The field system described above is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S2)- (S8). At least one of the north-south ditch features is visible on earliest photographs (S9) as a field boundary, and is therefore likely to be post medieval in date, as are the ditch features which appear to be aligned with it or perpendicular to it, many of which are thought to be post medieval drainage ditches, as recorded in the field to the north (SHER BUT 068).
However, there are a number of ditch features described as ‘small sub-divisions’ above, which appear to be on a slightly different alignment, and may represent an earlier field system or enclosures. Also of note are the series of possible circular features in the north-east corner of the field, which may represent small roundhouses or pits of possibly Anglo-Saxon SFBs, given the discovery of Saxon finds in the area (see other entries for BUT 002).
E. Ford (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 29th April 2015.