Site Event/Activity record ESF22176 - Archaeological Evaluation, Land at Bargate Farm, Bargate Road, West Row, Mildenhall, Suffolk

Mildenhall, Bargate Farm, Bargate Lane, West Row (MNL 694, TL 6784 7482) evaluation trenching for a new storage building at a site which operated as an inland port on the River Lark in the earlier Post medieval period did not reveal any evidence for structural remains or any finds of any antiquity within the area of the planned development. Below a shallow depth of overburden a uniform chalk surface was revealed and inspection of a previously excavated test pit nearby revealed that the chalk is an artificial platform some 700mm thick which lies over a layer of peat of unknown depth. It therefore appears likely that the general ground level around the former farm yard has been raised and consolidated in order to facilitate use of the site as an inland port in the earlier Post medieval, and possibly later medieval, period.