Monument record SNP 032 - Mallets Field

1982: Cropmarks noticed in Mallets Field including field boundaries (not related to systems recorded on Tithe Map) and a roughly rectangular enclosure, circa 50 x 30m, in one corner of two joining field boundaries (S1). Date unknown but clearly pre 19th century.

2014: A day of community fieldwalking was undertaken in the village of Snape on the western side of Church Road opposite the Saxon Fields housing estate. The event was organised and funded by the Heritage Lottery Funded project, Touching the Tide and involved 25 volunteers, mainly from Aldeburgh History Society. A total of 102 20m stints were walked, coving a distance of 2.04km and representing coverage of about 10% of the entire 4.4 hectare field available for the survey. A scatter of struck flint and burnt stone was recovered from across the field, but no concentrations were apparent. Although difficult to date closely, the majority may be of Bronze Age date and if so may be contemporary with the nearby round barrows that have been found in the village, which were also reutilised during the 6th century AD as the focus of an Anglo Saxon cemetery. A very thin scatter of Roman pottery was evident across the field, again forming no significant concentrations and nothing likely to be indicative of settlement in the vicinity. The rest of the pottery dates from the medieval period and later. The high medieval pottery found was mainly from the north of the field, which while not present in quantities sufficient to indicate habitation, may relate to manuring from the farm site to the north of the field. Later medieval pottery was scattered thinly across the field, as was a moderate amount of both post medieval and Victorian wares. The results from the fieldwalking support the notion of a small settlement present at Snape likely from the 12th century onwards, with this area of the present village perhaps not settled until the high medieval period and later. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2014 (S2). Full report to follow.