Monument record LCS 177 - OUTLINE RECORD: Medieval wall, precinct ditch and cobbled area LEISTON ABBEY COMMUNITY EXCAVATION 2014 (DIGVENTURES)

2014: A community-based survey and field evaluation continued into a second season at Leiston Abbey, aiming to contribute to the future management and presentation of the Site, and make recommendations for further work. The main focus of the investigation during the 2014 field season was in the two fields to the west of the claustral precinct, where four trenches (Trenches 10, 11, 12 and 13) were excavated across clearly defined earthworks and channels. These earthworks were contemporary with the monastic remains, and had been designed to channel floodwater away from higher ground above the claustral precinct, which may then have been harnessed for industrial purposes down slope. Adjacent to the upstanding monastic remains in the southern part of the site, Trenches 8 and 9 were excavated to investigate the previously unrecorded and un-archived excavations of the site in the 1980s. Evidence of the 1980s excavation were found, along with apparent evidence for the original medieval drain leading from the reredorter which was reconstructed by the Ministry of Works in the 1980s subsequent to the excavation. Additional work in 2014 included a photogrammetry survey to produce a metrically accurate 3D digital elevation model of the Abbey Church and a low-level aerial photography survey using kite mounted cameras and UAV’s to assess structural evidence for absent buildings associated with the eastern range. This was a crowdfunded excavation staffed by community volunteers and coordinated by DigVentures. English Heritage and Procorda, the present occupiers of the abbey, granted access and assistance throughout.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2014 (S1). Full report to follow.

2015: A community-based survey and field evaluation continued into a third season at Leiston Abbey. Ten small-scale evaluation trenches were excavated over the course of the 2015 field season, located to address specific questions relating to different parts of the site. This included one trench in the Abbey Precinct (Trench 14), where results indicate that bioturbation is confined to superficial deposits. Four trenches were dug in the Eastern field (Trenches 15, 16, 19 and 23), where the former monastic structures were observed; in 16, 19 and 23 these had been substantially damaged by an agricultural ‘subsoiler’, with modern plough furrows dragging archaeological material downslope. Three trenches at the southern edge of the site were in an area previously used as allotments (Trenches 20, 21 and 22). An east-west orientated Medieval wall was exposed in Trench 20, though it was not clear whether the wall comprised part of a larger roof bearing gatehouse structure or was part of a longer boundary wall aligned with the adjacent precinct ditch. Two trenches at the present entrance and driveway into the Abbey complex (Trenches 17 and 18) revealed a precinct ditch, large set limestone blocks, and a cobbled area, though the excavated area was not sufficient to characterise a potential gatehouse within the confines of the trench.

Remote sensing results were mixed, with magnetometry survey revealing the clear line of the precinct boundary ditch in the Eastern field, but offering little further resolution of the ground plan of previously excavated structural remains in either this field or the earthworks field. Low level aerial survey of the site was much more successful, with a full digital model of a 70-Hectare area created using quad-copter mounted cameras to build a georeferenced digital terrain model.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2015 (S2).