Monument record BSM 054 - Bures St Mary

Medieval town of Bures St Mary, defined from historic maps and locations of listed buildings.
1270/1, charter for market and fair granted to Robert Agvillon (S1, S2).
After Hodskinson's map of 1783 (S3).
2012: Test pitting identified pottery dating from the medieval and post-medieval periods (S4).

village test-pitting in Essex and Suffolk (TL/9033 and 9034). Bures sits on the B1508 at a crossing point of the River Stour, which is also the county boundary. The river divides the settlement into two halves: the village of Bures Hamlet is in Essex and Bures St Mary is in Suffolk. In 2012, test pits were excavated in both parts to complement community archaeological excavations being carried out at the same time by Access Cambridge Archaeology on common land in the Essex part of the village (Lewis and Ranson forthcoming 2013).
Bures Hamlet sits is the smaller of the two villages and is laid out along the main roads leading to Bridge Street and the crossing over the River Stour, namely Colchester Road and Station Hill, but the areas either side of the river crossing appear to be the main focal points for each village. The common is situated adjacent to the river and just S of Bridge Street and today it gives this village a more open aspect compared with Bures St Mary.
The church of St Mary lies on the N (Suffolk) side of the River Stour and is recorded in the Domesday Book; the current building dates to the 14th century, with additions continuing into the 16th century. The village of Bures St Mary is centred on its church and a ‘Y’ formation of roads: the E branch leads to the crossing of the River Stour on Bridge Street, the N branch leads out to Sudbury on the B1058 and the S branch follows the course of the river until the next crossing at the A134 by Nayland. The historic core of the village is centred around the church and High Street where the buildings often front the road, leaving no room for a pavement, often giving it a closed-in feeling. Around the church, along church Square and leading onto Nayland Road, the road does widen out and the area may formerly have functioned as an informal market place. Wharf Lane, running alongside the river W of the church, was used for loading and unloading goods transported by river, which was navigable up to this point.
Seven test pits were excavated in private gardens in both villages and on the common (www.arch.cam.ac.uk/aca/burescommon.html). Excavations were undertaken by pupils at Thomas Gainsborough School. With such a small number of pits excavated it is impossible to make any but the most superficial observations. In particular, it is not possible to draw any conclusions based on negative evidence, such as the absence of any finds of pre-12th century date. Two pits produced pottery of high medieval date, although neither yielded more than three sherds. Even less pottery of later medieval date was recovered, although it is not possible to attach any significance to this as evidence of a decline from such a small number of pits. In contrast, most of the pits produced large amounts of post-medieval pottery, with glazed red earthenwares dominating the assemblages, although several pits also produced a range of less utilitarian wares imported from Staffordshire and Germany.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2012 (S5).