Monument record BSE 498 - Medieval backyard activity and post medieval activity at Land at Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds

2017: PXA - Archaelogical excavation and monitoring was undertaken in 2017. The principal result of the excavation was the discovery of an area of well-preserved medieval (c. early-12th- to mid-14th-century) 'backyard' activity including two claylined ovens, wells, structural slots and postholes, and numerous cess and rubbish pits. The layout of the majority of these features and the orientation of an associated boundary ditch suggest that they were associated with one or two neighbouring medieval tenements/burgage plots fronting on to Friar's Lane, west of the site. Features identified during the excavation and evaluation also indicate survival of medieval features in the north of the site, behind buildings along the Westgate Street frontage. The medieval features produced large and significant assemblages of animal bone, cereal grains and building materials. These and other finds reflect a range of domestic and craft/ occupational activities, including food preparation and consumption, butchery of sheep and cattle, possible horn-working or tanning and cereal processing, engaged in by occupants of ‘middling’ status. However, there are also indicators of high-status occupation nearby: the presence of large dumps of medieval roof tile which had been used as levelling courses in well-constructed buildings or cellars, flakes from the faceting of flint nodules for use in construction, and bones of sturgeon, an elite foodstuff. These finds raise the possibility that the main phase of medieval occupation might actually have been peripheral activity associated with the short-lived Franciscan Friary which existed somewhere in this area of the town from 1258–63 before being forced to relocate to Babwell/ Tollgate. (S1)(S2)

See BSE 454 for Eval