Monument record FLN 068 - Flixton Park Quarry, East side of New Phase 14 (Palaeolithic)

2007: Pre-Anglian deposits: bone, plant remains, insects and very fresh struck flint [said to be rich assemblage of over 200 in situ struck flints - flakes and cores; (S1) found in Pre-Anglian organic channel in pit by Schreve Danielle, Barbara Silva and Ian Candy of the Royal Holloway University.
' It therefore appears that there are fresh early Middle Pleistocene artefacts, a rolled series of handaxes of undetermined age and Middle Palaeolithic all present in different parts of the quarry' (S2).

For finds records see FLN 065

1ha was stripped at the northern end of New Quarry Phases 15 and 16 in the area known as School Wood. All of the ditches recorded represented the continuation of features previously identified during earlier work to the north, though the dating for some of these features was uncertain. However, at least one of the ditches was relatively recent, being linked to landscape features shown on 19th-century maps and continuing in use until relatively recently. The earlier ditches included the southern end, together with a central entrance formed by opposed butt-ends, of a rectangular enclosure that had contained a small square enclosure with central pit. This had previously been interpreted as an Early Anglo Saxon shrine (John Blair pers. comm.) but its contrary alignment to the adjacent Early Anglo-Saxon buildings suggests that it was certainly not directly contemporary with their main period of occupation.
Five Early Anglo-Saxon sunken-featured buildings (SFBs) were recorded, all with an approximately east-west long axis, with the whole group being lined up on a similar east-west orientation over a distance of c.70m. Four of the SFBs had two internal posts central to their shorter sides, while one had no post-holes at all. Dimensions varied considerably with the largest measuring 4.5m x 3m with a depth of 0.6m and the smallest 3m x 2m with a depth of 0.3m. The entire fills of the buildings were sieved, producing a significant quantity of pottery (mainly EAS but some Roman sherds), Roman tile, animal bone, daub, iron nails and spindle whorls, the latter made from a number of different materials. Other positively dated Early Anglo-Saxon features were limited to a few isolated pits, although one of the ditches, forming an enclosure that would have contained the EAS hall buildings previously recorded to the north, has tentatively been proposed as belong to this phase. Two four-post structures were recorded. These are usually prehistoric in date, but in this instance were not found in association with other prehistoric deposits and with the absence of artefactual evidence must, at this juncture, remain undated.Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2007 (S3).

Two separate areas of the quarry were stripped of topsoil and archaeologically monitored.
FLN 068 – part of School Wood (c.0.5ha). A series of pits and pit groups were recorded, in addition to the continuations of some undated and post-medieval ditches and the surface of the former (pre-1880s) Flixton-to-Homersfield Road. Also, two superimposed four-post structures were identified. A prehistoric date was confirmed for the pits by the presence of flint-gritted pottery and scrappy worked flint. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2005 (S4).

During 2008 a further 0.5ha was stripped in the area of School Wood. With the exception of the continuation of a previously recorded ditch known from the estate and early Ordnance Survey maps, all of the datable features were prehistoric. While the majority of the features were pits, often clustered in small groups, structural evidence was recorded with at least five four-posted structures and an arc of eight post-holes indicative a of a larger, possibly screen-like structure. As yet, no analysis has been carried out on the artefactual evidence, principally ceramic and worked flint, although a later Neolithic or Bronze Age date seems likely. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2008 (S5).