Monument record IPS 010 - Bolton & Laughlins Pit, Dale Road, Ipswich, (IAS 8006).

This is a very confused site, with previous identifications/interpretations now rejected, and the event sequence and to which events finds/features can be attributed obscured by time and subsequant confusion by HER staff.

Finds of a "hearth", animal bones and "flint implements" by Moir are probably geological rather than archaeological. Other than some rolled and stained flints and a crude handaxe which are presumably derived from earlier Palaeolithic deposits, flint implements appear to be Neolithic, (S4).

C. 1909-c.1938: General observation of brickearth diggings by J Reid Moir (S12). (Earliest date provided by source, latest by most recent museum card accession date).
1912-1913: Excavations by J Reid Moir, (S3, S9).
1913: Excavations by R A Smith in 1913 (Source unknown, possibly S17 oor S19)
1914-1915: Excavations J Reid Moir.(S10, S11)
1916: Hiatus in due to the quarryman serving in the army, (S11).

Two Urns [Food Vessels], one good rim sherd, coarse, brownish-buff ware, flattened (slightly concave) rim, diameter 6 inches, probable height 4.25 inches, Early Bronze Age. Small rim sherd and sherd from a similar vessel. Rim, 7 inches diameter, height circa 3.75 inches, base circa 3.75 inches. Rim somewhat flattened and slightly incurved. Flat cordon lies from 0.5 to 1 inch below rim, decoration horizontal fingernail impressions. Sherd similar to above. Rim sherd of an accessory cup, (S1-S2).

Iron tip mounting from an early agricultural implement (possibly a plough) Late Iron Age or Roman.

Roman Pottery, greyware, bronze and bone bracelets, bronze brooch in form of a wire pin with three attached rings. A pot with remnants of an article of ? Rushes - mat or basket ? Cremation - "urn with burnt bone".

Ipswich ware pottery sherds

(S3, S7, S8)

1940: Grooved Ware sherds also recovered from the area (Source unknown).
1960: One pit with Grooved Ware found in 1960, Sherds from three vessels recovered (Source unknown). Durrington Walls and Clacton sub-styles of Grooved Ware represented (S6)
1977: A sherd of allegedly Palaeolithic pottery from Bolton's brick pit, Ipswich, was submitted to the Oxford Research Laboratory for thermoluminesce dating. The sherd in question was found and illustrated by J. Reid Moir (Journal of the Royal Anthr. Inst. 47, 1917,Fig. 41), and was associatedwith a Mousterian flint industry. Both the sherd and a surviving piece of clay matrix were tested. The result was a date of 4970±340 B.P., i.e. 3000 B.C. The sherd appears to be a very coarse example of the Grimston-LylesHill series, confirming the claim by Zeuner (S.E. )N at. And Ant. 55, 1950, 5-16) that the deposits in Bolton's brick pit were caused by comparatively recent hill wash (S5).
1990: Trenched evaluation of area failed to locate any archaeology, (S13).
2002: Watching Brief revealed no archaeological deposits, (S14).

See also (S15-S19).

See also records:
1914: Upper Palaeolithic finds and Neolithic structure, (IAS 8003/IPS 009)
1902: Romano British pottery, (IAS 8004/IPS 011).
1906: "Lower Paleolithic implements", (IAS 8005/IPS 012).
C. 1909-c.1935: General observation of brickearth diggings revealed Roman cemetery, (IAS 8007/IAS 8008/IPS 013)
1910: Neolithic Polished Axe found, (IAS8010/IPS 871).
Pre 1917? Mesolithic flint impliments found, (IAS 8009/IPS 005).
1911: Crouched burial, prehistoric? (IPS 129).
1934: Roman "Buried Shafts" Excavated, (IPS 095).
Unknown date (noted on IM 6" Map) Neolithic well, (IAS 8011/IPS 128).
1960: Romano British pottery and Neolithic Rinyo-Clactonian Ware, (IAS 8012/IPS 537)