Monument record COP 011 - Eight Elms Farm

January 2006: Late Bronze Age hoard, metal detected and excavated, consisting of 60 (+ 2 possibly modern) pieces weighing circa 13 kilos. Finds of 5 socketed axes (3 complete- 1 squashed, & 2 fragments); 1 incomplete leaf-shaped dagger; 1 bucket/cauldron (?) fragment and 53 'ingot' fragments. Also 1 disc and 1 socketed tube (both unstratified) which may be modern. Summary details in (S1). Excavation report (S2).
Reported as treasure & sent to BM for cleaning and analysis - details to follow (S3). Details in (S4).
Found on slope overlooking (& circa 340m from) tributary of River Stour.

2006: A major refurbishment of the surviving elements of Crows Hall, a brick-built Tudor building, and the landscaping of its moated platform required a programme of archaeological work that included evaluation, building recording and the recording of any structures revealed during groundworks. While most interventions were on a small scale, the results provided information with regard to various building phases of the hall. The principle findings were as follows:
1) A combination of evaluation trenching and monitoring of groundworks confirmed that the building complex had once included an east and south range.
2) The removal of the existing floor in the room immediately to the north of the gatehouse revealed that the original gatehouse had been smaller. The flanking rooms were a later development, a fact that was confirmed by examination of the extant external wall fabric to the north of the gatehouse.
3) Wall stubs of both red-brick and flint and mortar construction were recorded to the north of extant building suggesting that a further complex of buildings were present with the latter possibly of earlier, medieval date.
4) While there was clear evidence for some brick revetting of the moat contemporary with the Tudor building phase, particularly at its corners, later, probably 19th century, phases of walling was identified on the northern side of the platform.
5) A complex of below-ground brick structures and wall stubs, located immediately north of a later phase extension on the north side of the surviving wing, were interpreted as latrines of ‘thunderbox’-like construction with brick-lined chutes emptying into chambers that would have been periodically emptied. While Tudor-type bricks had been used in their construction, these appeared to have been re-used and a 19th-century date is thought to be the most likely, although the original structure may have been slightly earlier. The latrines were either external to the main building or accessed through the extension (S5). Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2006.