Monument record WLV 023 - Church of St Michael

A church is recorded at Woolverstone in the Domesday survey. Church of St Michael. Consists of chancel, nave, modern N transept, S porch, W tower. Further details in (S1)(S2). Now fairly isolated, set within grounds of Woolverstone Park.
2008: Re-ordering works included the insertion of a new toilet facility into the base of the tower and the external excavation of service trenches and the insertion of a Trench Arch Drain. Archaeological monitoring of the excavation works was undertaken by Suffolk County Council's Archaeological Service Field Projects Team. The excavations external and internal to the tower revealed a bonded flint and septaria footing that stepped out on both sides of the wall, presumably to spread the weight of the tower. Removal of the existing patterned slate floor (Victorian) in the tower revealed a secondary floor surface of compacted mortar with flints and brick/tile fragments. The subsequent removal of this floor revealed the underlying sandy soil, which included fragments of disarticulated human bone, probably from burials in the churchyard prior to the construction of the tower in the 15th century. Five half bricks set in a circle close to the centre of the tower and sealed by the secondary floor surface had no obvious function. The drainage trenches and soakaway external to the tower were not deep enough to disturb intact burials and further structural remains were not uncovered (S3).
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2008 (S4).