Monument record IPS 865 - Archant Site, Lower Brook Street, Ipswich.

Between the 17th and 20th May 2016 Oxford Archaeology East carried out an archaeological evaluation at Lower Brook Street, Ipswich Suffolk. Two test pits were located within an area currently used as a car park to provide information regarding the potential survival and character of any archaeological remains that may survive here. Test pit 1 found a 19th century cellar with and in-situ asphalt floor located at a depth of 2.3m, the cellar had been subsequently backfilled with layers of brick and concrete rubble in the 1960s.

Test pit 2 uncovered natural sands and gravels at a depth of 2.3m below ground level. Above the natural was a two metre deep sequence of soil layers, probably resulting from dumping and cultivation from the late medieval period to the early 19th century. The soils contained pottery and tile ranging from the medieval to the early post medieval period in date. Animal bones, oyster shells and charred seeds were found as well as a small number of human bone fragments.

Evidence for one or more possible garden structures of post medieval date was found. A 19th century brick wall is probably the remains of one of the industrial buildings that occupied the site during the 19th and 20th centuries, (S1).

2018: Excavation revealed extensive remains of Late Anglo-Saxon and early medieval (pre-Norman) date (Fig. 177), including ditches which may have formed property boundaries. Features found within the properties included shallow flat-based pits reminiscent of tanks, as well as a possible sunken featured building and post-holes belonging to other structures such as fences and sheds. Waterlogging at the base of the features had preserved materials such as small scraps of textile including woollen cloth, possibly sacking, and the bases of timber posts. Other material remains included animal and fish bones. One tank contained a large quantity of oyster shells and it is suggested that the tank was used for keeping oysters fresh. Large amounts of pottery and other artefacts were also recovered; items of note include a fragment of a worked bone ice skate, a large bone needle, a whetstone and a cogwheel-type brooch.
Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2018. (S2)

Full excavation report to follow

2017: Trial trenching identified an area associated with an ornamental pond, towards the southern end of the site, and thought to exist in the 18th century. Stratigraphy suggests that trench 3 was located close to this feature. Trench 4 was located on an area recently occupied by the 1960s print works building. Trench 4 found evidence for massive stanchion blocks that were closely spaced and penetrated into the natural gravels more than 3m BGL. These had caused widespread truncation and had disturbed archaeological deposits to such an extent little useful data could be retrieved. Trench 5 revealed a possible former water course that was probably open in the mid Saxon through medieval periods. A silver coin of Athelstan and a lead plaque inscribed with runes was found in its fills. Overlying the extinct brook were layers or dumps of soil, possibly associated with a 17th to 18th century orchard and gardens. In the 19th century the area was built on by brick houses, the foundations of which survive. Trench 6 revealed a Late Saxon feature, possibly a sunken featured building with posts and remnants of possible wooden planks and evidence for good survival of organic materials. Evidence for later layers/dumps of soil were found overlying it although later evidence had been removed by a 19th or 20th century brick cellar. Trench 7 revealed a complex stratigraphy beginning with early medieval intercutting pits and a buried soil over which was a sequence of soil layers/dumps likely to date to the 17th/18th century. These were built on by a probable malt house in the late 17th century and the walls, yards and floors associated with it survive (S3)

2018: The archaeological works uncovered evidence for activity predominantly spanning the Late Anglo‐Saxon to modern periods with some residual Early to Middle Anglo‐Saxon finds. Furthermore, the course of the former brook which gave its name to the street bordering the site to the east was identified, extending north to south in the eastern part of the site. Its associated deposits produced a mixture of reworked Anglo‐Saxon, medieval and post‐medieval artefacts (including an Anglo‐Saxon runic inscribed lead tablet) which indicate the broad period when this brook was extant. In the northern part of site, west of the brook, mitigation Areas 8 and 9 uncovered dense Late Anglo‐Saxon settlement remains: ditches, pits and post holes cutting the natural geology. These features produced assemblages of metalwork, pottery, fired clay, animal bone, oyster/mussel shells, worked bone/wood/stone items and a textile fragment which can help to illuminate aspects of the inhabitants’ daily life in this part of the developing settlement of Ipswich. Bulk soil samples were also taken for plant remains. These remains, and other parts of the site that had not suffered modern truncation, were overlain by a build‐up of deposits dating from a period when this site probably lay within the grounds of the medieval Priory of St Peter and St Paul and the succeeding Cardinal’s College of St Mary. Although no features were excavated which could be directly related to these ecclesiastical foundations, the assemblages of medieval and post‐medieval pottery, ceramic building material (CBM), architectural stone, glass and the occurrence of disarticulated human remains may shed some (indirect) light onto this period. Deposits continued to accumulate on the site during the post‐medieval period where, away from street frontages, historical maps show this site to have been an open area of orchards, gardens and backlands. The early modern malthouses mapped on the site, dating from possibly the late 17th century onwards, had evidently been largely truncated by later buildings. However, along with a few vestiges of c.18th‐19th century wall footings and a well, the intact base of a malt kiln was uncovered that will help to inform the type of construction. Brick samples were taken from the kiln and wall footings to aid dating of these structures. The malthouses were demolished in the early 20th century when a furniture factory was built, the surviving wall footings of which were evident across large parts of the site. The furniture factory was in turn demolished and replaced in the later 20th century by a printworks, the construction of which resulted in extensive truncation and disturbance of large parts of the site (S4).