Monument record WLB 114 - Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pits and Medieval pits, ditches, trackway and kiln on Proposed reservoir, Lodge Road

2017: Geophysical survey recorded a variety of geophysical anomalies, including those indicative of settlement boundaries, trackways archaeological pits, quarry pits and agricultural furrows (S1)(S3).

2017: Evaluation trenches confirmed that many of the anomalies noted by the geophysical survey were archaeological, primarily ditches forming enclosures or fields containing a few artefacts dated to the medieval period. The medieval pottery assemblage was realtively large for a rural evaluation. A single piece of stone was also recorded; at the apex is a central square aperture, this may have functioned as a weight. Some residual Roman material was also present. A redundant clay extraction pit was seen and is marked on a late 19th century map. The site of a second, larger pit, now backfilled was also seen and was indicated by a large depression and confirmed by the geophysical survey (S2)

2017: A detailed fluxgate gradiometer survey identified a range of geophysical anomalies including a series of perpendicular and parallel running positive linear anomalies indicative of boundary ditches, trackways and enclosure ditches, some of which ‘intercut’ indicating that the site has been variously sub-divided overtime. A plethora of discrete positive anomalies interpreted as archaeological pits, a thermoremanent response indicative of a burnt pit, hearth or kiln and large areas of magnetic disturbance that highlight the extant former quarry pits were further prospected (S3).

2018: Excavation. Data to be added to HER. An excavation recovered a small assemblage of residual Mesolithic/Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic/Bronze Age worked flints. A small cluster of pits contained pottery dating to the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age. The main focus of activity was during the medieval period, characterised by a series of domestic and agricultural sub-rectangular enclosures established in the 11th–12th centuries. The enclosures underwent at least three phases of modification and expansion between the 12th and 15th centuries. Other features included a 12th–13th century trackway, a 13th–14th century kiln and a boundary ditch, as well as numerous pits. Post-medieval quarrying was also present.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2019 (S4).