Monument record CLA 080 - OUTLINE RECORD: CLARE CASTLE MAM EXCAVATION (C.UNI)

Five trenches were excavated by local volunteers as part of the Heritage Lottery funded Managing a Masterpiece project. All the trenches produced preserved archaeological deposits, despite the presence of extensive engineering works and buildings of 19th and 20th century date associated with the railway. These removed some of the later medieval layers across part of the inner bailey, but earlier deposits did survive intact beneath these, overlain with thick layers of modern ballast and hardcore.
The medieval archaeological remains revealed by the excavations included a large ditch or pit containing domestic refuse dating to the late 12th to 14th century (near the entrance linking the inner and outer castle baileys); five graves dating to the mid-11th to late 13th centuries (in the centre of the inner bailey); one of which was complete, whose head was also resting on a pillow stone, plus fragmentary human remains from a pit. A stone building was also found, originally part of the first phase of the castle in the 11th – 12th centuries, but refurbished with decorated tile and glass in the 13th/14th century while Elizabeth de Burgh was resident and demolished in the later 15th or early 16th century. A number of post holes and remains of mortar are indicative of an earlier structure on site, possibly the remains of the original chapel in use prior to the construction of the priory. A Roman ditch was also recorded running parallel with the River Stour (between the motte and the railway line) (S1).

2013: In 2013 five archaeological trial trenches were excavated on the site of Clare Castle on the south side of the town of Clare in Suffolk. The excavations were funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund through the Managing a Masterpiece scheme (2010-14) in order to engage the communities of the Stour valley in their heritage. Over three weeks, more than 120 volunteers from the local area took part in the excavations at Clare Castle under the direction of Access Cambridge Archaeology. The results showed that despite extensive damage associated with the 19th century construction and use until the mid-20th century of a railway line through the castle bailey, important pre-modern archaeological remains survive.
The excavations provided new evidence for the development of the area now occupied by the castle from the prehistoric period onwards. They showed the site to have used by humans in the Mesolithic or Neolithic and later Bronze Age or early Iron Age, and highlighted the possibility that features from this period may survive. The area appeared not to have been intensively used on the Roman period, when it was probably occupied by fields rather than settlement. No evidence could be identified dating to the 5th century AD, but confirmed activity of late Anglo-Saxon date included at least one Christian burial and traces of an associated post-and-trench timber building which may have been a church or chapel. This may be the church of the documented College of St John first documented in 1045 AD. The timber building was replaced by one of flint-faced clunch sometime in the later 11th– 13th centuries. A total of 5 in-situ burials pre-dating the 14th century were discovered in the south of the site along with disarticulated remains of others, and inlcuded male, female, and sub-adult individuas. He cemetery and building went out of use early in the life of the castle, possible as early as the 12th century, after which the area around it remained open, possibly in use as gardens.
In the centre of the site, a large cut feature dug as either a quarry pit or a ditch forming part of the entrance to the present inner bailey appears to date to the first phase of castle construction in the later 11th century. This remained open into the later 13th or 14th centuries when infilling with high-status domestic refuse suggests the kitchens may by then have been sited nearby. Redeposited dumps containing painted glass and decorated floor tile is likely to relate to documented expenditure by Elizabeth de Burgh on the castle in the mid14th century and indicates a high status building such as hall or chapel was probably sited near the later railway platform. In situ remains of other medieval buildings of clunch or stone, demolished in the 15th or 16 century, were identified inside the southern perimeter of the inner castle bailey. (S2)