Site Event/Activity record ESF22668 - Watching Brief - Land off Peddars Close, Ixworth

14/2/05: Site visit saw road strip in NE corner of plot and some profiles. 1.2m+ of ground being removed, exposing natural chalk under topsoil. 1 large pit, 5m+ wide, infilled with modern soil. 28/02/05: Site visit saw the topsoil strip over the western half of the site. The removal of 0.3-4m of topsoil exposed a mid brown silt subsoil with flints, overlying the natural chalk. The surface was not fully cleaned and observation was difficult but no obvious features were seen. A small area to the south-east had the natural chalk directly underlying the topsoil. A service trench running N-S through the access road showed truncated chalk underlying the modern concrete. In the north-east corner of the site a large area had been excavated to a depth of c.3m. Observation of the west facing section, from a distance of c.25m (due to H&S), saw a clear cut, with a fill of brown/orange silt, cutting the natural chalk. This cut consisted of a single line, descending at 45º, to a depth of c.1.5m and may have possibly been the northern edge of a large E-W aligned ditch, some 3m+ wide.