Monument record DNN 047 - Dennington CEVCP School, Laxfield Road, Dennington

2009: Evaluation revealed a number of features of archaeological interest were recorded during the work. A single trench was excavated within the footprint of the proposed building. This revealed a number of pits and a ditch of probable Early Iron Age date. These features were sealed by a subsoil deposit, that was in turn cut by a number of post-holes of possible medieval date. Finds from the prehistoric and medieval periods were collected during the evaluation (S1).
2010: Excavation 2010. Post-excavation assessment report represents the evidence from an archaeological evaluation and excavation at Dennington CEVCP School, Laxfield Road, Dennington, Suffolk. It provides a quantification and assessment of the site archive to answer specific research questions. The significance of the data is assessed and recommendations for dissemination of the results of the fieldwork are made. In this instance it is recommended that no further analysis is required and that this report should qualify as a 'grey literature' report. The earliest activity was a boundary ditch probably dating to the Iron Age. Later phases of activity incorporated residual prehistoric finds, and there is a suggestion that these may have been originally deposited in a scattered midden. An undated phase of activity on the site included a track and its adjacent ditches, pits, and an extended inhumation burial. These features are likely to date to the late Saxon or early medieval period, but this was not proven by the finds or by radio-carbon dating of the burial. At some stage the track went out of use and the plot was ploughed. In the medieval period the site was occupied by one or more timber buildings and an associated rubbish pit. These went out of use in the late 13th or 14th century, after which the site again reverted to agricultural or horticultural use. A ditched boundary probably divided two areas within the school grounds in the 19th century, over which were the modern school playground and garden deposits (S2).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2009 (S3).