Monument record HLY 006 - Site of multi-phase settlement and enclosures, including Saxon sunken-featured buildings

Settlement Site 330 yds (300m) NW of Walnut Tree Farm.
The RB type "Native Settlement" has one extremely interesting and exceptional feature. In its centre are squarish dark patches which may indicate sunken pit-like dwellings. In this location the existence of those on a previously occupied Roman site would be of the utmost interest (S1).
1973: Ploughed field. No surface finds (S1).
1985: Site lies on a natural rise capped with light sand and gravel soil. Under winter cereal at time of visit. Sparse flint "pot-boilers" on surface, but no other artefacts (S1).
Crop marks - field system, comprising of linear ditches and possible enclosures, NW of Walnut Tree Farm (S2).
Settlement Site 330 yds (300m) NW of Walnut Tree Farm.
The RB type "Native Settlement" has one extremely interesting and exceptional feature. In its centre are squarish dark patches which may indicate sunken pit-like dwellings. In this location the existence of those on a previously occupied Roman site would be of the utmost interest (S1).
1973: Ploughed field. No surface finds (S1).
Scheduled Monument

April 2016. Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty National Mapping Programme.
The multi-phase settlement described above is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S3)-(S7). The site is extremely complex, comprising at least two, and probably more, phases of enclosure and settlement. Many elements are likely to be of Bronze Age to Roman period date; they include up to four ring ditches, all of which could be roundhouses, although the possibility that some are round barrows cannot be ruled out. Subrectangular and square pits almost certainly represent the remains of sunken featured buildings, indicative of settlement in the Saxon period. To the northwest, the settlement appears to be bounded by a former channel, which is also visible as a cropmark. The site is surrounded by, and partially integrated within, a much more extensive area of fields and trackways (HLY 161), itself almost certainly the product of several phases of use over a long time period. This in turn is one of several such cropmark sites, extending between the Deben and the coast, many of which may have been in use from at least the Bronze Age to the Roman period, with some elements being added or continuing in use into the post medieval period.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 28th April 2016.