Monument record IPS 758 - 31 Stoke Street, Ipswich.

2015:An archaeological evaluation was carried out at 31 Stoke Street, Ipswich, in advance of a residential development. Two trenches were excavated revealing a small number of features. Finds evidence suggests that at least some of these date from the medieval period. These were interpreted as rubbish pits suggesting occupation in the immediate vicinity, presumably on the street frontage, an area now under later buildings. The site was located in an area that sloped down from west to east and to the north, although this is now heavily landscaped. On the street frontage and along the western arm of the ‘L’ shaped site it was clear that the surface of the natural subsoil had been truncated to form a roughly level terrace and that Stoke Street itself in this area is a sunken lane cut into the side of the slope. This is further evidenced by the presence of a revetting wall topped by a steep slope on the west side of the street, adjacent to St. Mary’s churchyard. Occasional sherds of Middle Saxon Ipswich ware and some possible Late Saxon Thetford-type ware were also recovered as residual finds in the medieval features, (S1).

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