Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1446 - Ditch 0251

Ditch 0251 ran from north to south along the very eastern limits of the excavation, adjacent to the Lower Orwell Street frontage. At the north end, up to 6m of the west side of the ditch was exposed on both sides of the eastern precinct wall of the LMED, phase 2 Friary. With the exception of a small trench (0287), to the east of the precinct wall, excavation of the ditch was solely restricted to the two metres wide strip lying on the west side of the wall.
The west edge of the ditch cut the eastern layers of the EMED bank (0311-0313) implying an enlargement of the EMED ditch. No bank layers associated with ditch 0251 had survived the post-medieval (16th-17th century) filling of the ditch and slighting of the upper levels of the bank. Some silt layers (0299, 0330 and 0332) of ditch 0251 survived west of the construction trench for the Friary precinct wall. A single sherd of Ipswich glazed ware in layer 0299, and a sherd of Scarborough I ware in layer 0330, confirm a late 13th/early14th century date for the silting. Ditch 0251 must be the ‘Magna fossata’ or great ditch constructed in 1204 with help of the people of Cambridge as recorded in the Ipswich Domesday (Charman 1963), (S1).