Site Event/Activity record ESF21949 - Monitoring, All Sainst Church, Laxfield

Two small evaluation test-pits were excavated within the body of the tower of All Saints Church, Laxfield on the line of proposed new service trenches. Immediately below the existing concrete floor in Trench 1 the remains of an earlier brick floor was uncovered. The bricks were heavily sooted on their upper surface and were interpreted as representing a 19th or early 20th century structure that would have formed the stable base for a stove. Two other similar bases survive in the nave. Below the brick floor in Trench one and immediately below the concrete in Trench 2 a layer of disaggregated lime mortar and flints were recorded. No medieval floor levels were encountered. Judging by the base level of the extant limestone mouldings, particularly in the area of Trench 1, medieval floor levels would have been similar to those of today and, on that basis, are likely to have been replaced rather than built over.