Site Event/Activity record ESF25459 - Excavation - Archaeological test pit excavations in Southwold and Reydon

This report presents the results of a programme of archaeological excavation of 16 1m square 'test pits' in the adjacent Suffolk coastal settlements of Southwold and Reydon, carried out in autumn 2014. The excavations were funded by 'Touching the Tide', an HLF-funded programme intended to increase public engagement with and awareness of the local environment. Producing a thin scatter of worked flint of probable prehistoric date from the area now covered by settlement, the 2014 excavations suggested that humans at this time favoured the areas close to and overlooking the tidal creeks. The test pits produced no evidence for settlement in the succeeding Roman or Anglo-Saxon periods, suggesting that settlement then was likely to be very scant or highly dispersed. The excavations did however show that both the present settlements probably originated in the high medieval period, with that at Reydon initially more substantial than Southwold from the late medieval period. Both settlements seem to have withstood the demographic crises of the 14th century and its aftermath relatively well, but the late medieval period did see Southwold eclipse Reydon in terms of population size, a relationship which once established was maintained throughout the post-medieval period and well into the modern era. Information from OASIS Online Form.