Site Event/Activity record ESF19976 - Evaluation of land at Hilton Farm, Badingham Road, Peasenhall, 2009

A trial trench evaluation was carried out at the above site in advance of the construction of 15 houses. Five trenches (total area 319.5m2) were excavated, representing approximately 5% of the area of the proposed development. The geological strata consist of glacial sands and gravels, showing considerable variation across the site and displaying evidence for periglacial processes in the form of ice wedges, eroded hollows and a run-off channel. These deposits are sealed in places by naturally-occurring subsoil that has been altered in the course of agricultural activity. Elsewhere the subsoil has been lost by down-slope erosion or artificial truncation. A large quarry pit, of post-medieval date, was identified in the northeast part of the site. Undated dumped deposits in the southeast part of the site are probably filling another extraction pit or represent up-cast from nearby quarrying. The only significant artefactual evidence was a Romano-British brooch recovered from an otherwise undated deposit.