Monument record FML 078 - Middle Saxon, medieval, and post medieval activity at Land at Fairfield Road, Framlingham

August 2013: A flugate gradiometer survey was carried out. An area of c.8ha was surveyed over two fields. A rectangular shaped anomaly was detected towards the north-west corner of the field and adjacent to Fairfield Road. This may indicated the possible walled outline of a building. A small square-shaped feature is depucted on the 1842 Tithe Map possibley indicating a former building. Immediately to its south side, strong magnetic responses were recorded possibly indicating the presence of burning or demolition rubble. In both field, indications of filled in ponds were recorded in the resultant plots and these are also depicted on the historic maps from 1842 to 1927. Other anomlaies detected were of a modern nature. (S3)

October 2013: Artefact densities were extremely low on the northern field, with a low density of Roman pottery sherds visible where the stubble was broken by tractor wheel ruts. Artefact densities were higher on the southern field and consisted of medieval and post-medieval pottery sherds. The distribution of finds presents a pattern which can be broadly correlated with the geophysical survey (S1).

2017: Archaeological evaluation has found archaological activity in proximity to the medieval centre of Framlingham. The southern field had a few medieval and post medieval drainage ditches and a watering hole. Several drainage gullies were also observed in the northern field. The main centre of activity, dating to high to late medieval periods, included two stone surfaces, several parallel ditchesand three possible watering holes/ponds and concentrated along Fairfield Road on the western edge of the northern field. The presence of water features, surfaces and a lack of standing structures implies animal husbandry activity. The site may be the location of medieval cattle market or a fair in Framlingham.The site also found two features of probable Saxon date

2017: An archaeological excavation was undertaken by Oxford Archaeology in July and August 2017 following the result of an evaluation.
Archaeological remains ranging in date from the middle Anglo-Saxon period through to the 19th century were identified. The finds assemblage from the excavation was large, idicating the area was used extensively. It reinforced the findings from the previous archaeological trench evaluation, where widespread dumps of domestic rubbish dating from the medieval and the post medieval period were recorded. The most significant feature identified was a long north to south aligned ditch which fed into a pond located in the north-west corner of Area 1. To the south in Area 3, this ditch turned west and ran beyond the limits of excavation. The ditch likely originated during the 12th to 14th centuries, and both the ditch and the pond produced medieval and post medieval pottery along with shell, bone and other domestic debris. A series of smaller gullies running downhill from the east fed into this main ditch.
The majority of the features dated to the medieval and early post medieval periods and lay imemdiately west of this major north to south ditch. In an Area 1, these consisted of large pits packed with discraded domestic refuse. Other pits contained large quantities of animal bone, dominated by cattle, and formed a group of backfilled inter-cutting fetaures. The inter-cutting fetaures toward the middle of Area 1 were most distinctive since they were surrounded, and in some cases sealed, by dumped layers of densely packed flint amd chalk which appear to have been laid to consolidate the surface of certain areas of the site. There were very few smaller features to suggest structures or direct occupation of the site, rather, the dense pitting activities suggested activity related to animal husbandry and domestic refuse tipping, perhaps associated with a nearby area of settlement. Although documentary evidence suggest that a late/post medieval fair was held at Framlingham somewhere in the immediate vicinity, along Fairfield Road, there was no positive evidence for this from the excavated areas. (S2) (S4).