Monument record REY 070 - OUTLINE RECORD: Medieval trackway at POTTERS BRIDGE - Mon (H. Wallis)

2014: A watching brief was undertaken ahead of flood defence works at Potter’s Bridge. This was located on the rising ground to the south of the river and revealed two small gravel extraction pits and several ditches. Both the pits and ditches appeared to be broadly contemporary; the pottery assemblage indicating a late 13th to early 14th century date. Significantly two of the ditches defined a rutted trackway which would have led from the now lost village of Easton Bavents to the river crossing at Potters Bridge, indicating that this crossing point had been established by the late 13th or early 14th century. At this time Easton Bavents was a thriving community having been granted a market in 1330, although documentary evidence indicates that by the 16th century coastal erosion had already impacted on the size and prosperity of the village. It is not known when the direct track from the village to the river crossing fell out of use but with no artefacts later than early 14th century it is possible that this occurred relatively early, perhaps in the late 14th or early 15th century. 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.