Site Event/Activity record ESF22314 - Monitoring, Coltsfoot Road, Ipswich.

PROJECT DETAILS A trenched evaluation conducted in January of this year revealed a large undated ditch running east to west across the northern end of the site. This feature corresponded to a ditched or moated enclosure seen in the 1st to the 3rd editions of the Ordnance Survey maps which had the internal dimensions of c.50m east to west and c.30m north to south. Detailed documentary research undertaken by Tony Breen (Appendix 2) could find no reference to the moat belonging to a dwelling, habitation or any other function. A map of 1812 and subsequent documentation refer to this area as 'the island'. From the 16th century onwards the site was part of large and wealthy estates, passing from the Crane Hall to the Chantry and then finally to the Stoke Park estate of the Cobbold family. As these estates were owned by wealthy families who did not have to rely on agriculture for an income they might have used 'the island' for rearing game birds or for some other shooting related activity. Monitoring of footing trenches dug for a new dwelling at the northern end of the site revealed that the ditch was in excess of 8m in width and was at least 2.2m deep but was not bottomed. Unfortunately no finds or other dating evidence was recovered from the fills of this feature. Areas monitored to the south of the site showed high degrees of truncation and all potential archaeological deposits and features were probably destroyed during the construction of the previous carpark area. Project status: Complete Yes, Validated Yes Previous/Future Work: Previous Yes, Future No Associated Identifiers: HER event no. IPS 712 Planning Application No. IP/12/00743 NMR No. 1581378 Project Type: Recording project Investigation Type: '''Watching Brief''' Reason for Investigation: National Planning Policy Framework - NPPF Site status: None Current Land use: Vacant Land 1 - Vacant land previously developed Monument Type(s)/Period(s): DITCH None Artefact Type(s)/Period(s): NONE None PROJECT LOCATION Area 0.01 Hectares Grid Reference: TM14534382 Point Height 16.40 - 17.00 metres PROJECT CREATOR(S) Brief originator: Local Authority Archaeologist and/or Planning Authority/advisory body Design originator: Rachael Monk Director/Manager: Stuart Boulter Supervisor: Jezz Meredith DIGITAL ARCHIVE Recipient: Suffolk County SMR Contents: 'other' Media: 'Images raster / digital photography', 'Spreadsheets', 'Text' PAPER ARCHIVE Recipient: Suffolk County SMR Contents: 'other' Media: 'Correspondence', 'Miscellaneous Material' BIBLIOGRAPHY Publication Type: Grey literature (unpublished document/manuscript) Title: Coltsfoot Rd, Ipswich, IPS 712; Archaeological Monitoring Report Author(s)/Editor(s): Meredith, J. Other Bibliographic Details: SCCAS rpt no 2013/127 Date: 2013 Issuer/Publisher: SCCAS Place of Issue or Publication: Ipswich Description: Short report with a jolly good documentary search in Appendix 2