Monument record IPS 982 - 7-9 Woodbridge Road, Ipswich.

2016: In order to deduce the quality of preservation and the character and date of any surviving archaeological deposits at 7 – 9 Woodbridge Road, Ipswich an archaeological evaluation by trial-trench was undertaken. The results of the evaluation would be used to inform any archaeological mitigation process that might be required should the site subsequently undergo development. A single trench was excavated down the centre of the site. The archaeology was found to be undamaged by the early 20th century building that had until relatively recently occupied the site. An overburden thickness of c.1.00m had effectively protected the underlying archaeological deposits. The earliest datable feature was a pit of later Saxon,10th/11th century date, while an east to west orientated ditch at the southern end of the trench was also considered to be of a relatively early date based on the leached character of its fill. The majority of the recorded features were large loam filled pits of varying depth that appeared continuous with an overlying soil layer in the northern half of the trench. The artefactual evidence, primarily CBM, suggested that these features were post-medieval in date when the site is known from map evidence to have been open, probably cultivated, ground. A series of post-holes seen to be cutting at least the lower levels of the post-medieval overburden, some with rotten wood still within them, were probably associated with relatively minor structures present on the site immediately prior to the more formally constructed early 20th century buildings, (S1).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2016 (S2)