Site Event/Activity record ESF21309 - Evaluation - Shire Hall car park, Bury St Edmunds

Evaluation was carried out a the former Shire Hall Car Park. Four trenches were excavated. Trench 4 was repositioned after the tarmac had been cut and lifted. A deep sequence of redeposited soil layers was recorded in all of the trenches demonstrating that the low-lying area within the floodplain had been built up to 'reclaim' the land during the late medieval period. The archaeological levels were well preserved, with little disturbance, and occurred within 0.6m of the current ground surface. A black, peaty river silt was seen c.0.2m thick and occurred 2m below the carpark surface. The top of a fine brown peat was found at 2.4m below the surface, this was not excavated but appeared devoid of cultural material (S1).