Monument record SUY 117 - Undated Ditch and feature at Harp Close Meadow, Sudbury

An evaluation by trial trenching was carried out in relation to a planning proposal for development of the site. Twenty-nine trenches (total area 2222 m2) were excavated, representing approximately 4.9% of the proposed development area. The site was located in a dry valley overlooking the River Stour valley to the west. Natural strata consisted of glacial outwash sands and gravels with localised areas of chalky till, overlaid on the lower slopes by head deposits. A north-south ditch close to the eastern boundary of the site produced small amounts of abraded prehistoric and Roman pottery and some worked flints, and a rich plant macrofossil assemblage that included frequent charred cereal remains. The ditch was sealed by a soil horizon containing small amounts of worked flint and Roman pottery, which in turn was buried by a layer of colluvial soil that produced some fragments of Roman tile. The colluvium was overlaid by the current topsoil. The only other archaeological feature was part of a pit (or ditch terminus) in the western half of the site; this produced some undiagnostic fired clay fragments but no datable material (S1).