Monument record SWD 051 - Southwold

Medieval town of Southwold, defined from historic maps and locations of listed buildings.
1222, grant of market to the Abbot of St Edmunds.
1226/27, grant of market and fair to be held on the eve and day of St Philip and St Jacob (30th April).
1490, permission granted to hold a second fair.
Fairs held: Trinity Fair (three days following Trinity Sunday), St Bartholomews Fair (held in front of the church on Bartholomews Green on the 24th August).
1504 charter given for 2 weekly markets and 2 annual fairs (S1,S2).
After Southwold map 1588 (S3).
After 17th century map of Southwold (S4).
After Hodskinson's map of 1783 (S5).

2014: A total of 16 test pits were excavated over four days, with eight located in Southwold and the other eight in the adjacent village of Reydon. The excavation was organised and funded by the Heritage Lottery Funded project, Touching the Tide with the support of Southwold Museum and Historical Society who recruited local volunteers and test pit sites. With just 16 pits excavated, it is difficult to draw reliable inferences about the settlements’ development, but it is noteworthy that there was little evidence for activity leading to pottery deposition in either village until after the Norman Conquest. After this date a cluster of sites producing medieval pottery in the south of Reydon and the north of Southwold has been noted, suggesting a potential focus of settlement either side of Buss Creek. Much like the ACA test pit excavation results from Walberswick, both the settlements of Southwold and Reydon seem to have been scarcely affected by the Black Death during the 14th century. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2014 (S6). Full report to follow.

2015: Area to the south of the town extended following a geophysical survey that identified possible medieval structures and roadways on Gun Hill (S7).