Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1687 - Road 1825

This road, the precursor of St Stephen's Lane along the eastern edge of the site, was laid directly above burials in the EMS cemetery. The base of the road surface comprised a compacted layer of greenish-brown sand and gravel (1827) held together by iron-panning and laid upon re-deposited natural sand (2266) above the podsol subsoil (2248). A layer (2374) above was stained green, most likely by cess deposition, and could indicate the movement of livestock up and down the road. The road surface above this was made up of small rounded cobbles and incorporated 15kgs of iron slag. The six separate layers of road surfaces, up to 50cm thick in total, were associated with 185 Ipswich ware and only 8 Thetford sherds indicating that it was virtually unused after the MS period. However, only the western edge of the road lay within the excavation area (a maximum of 4m of its width) and the eastern edge of the MS road must lie under St Stephen’s Lane. It must be assumed that the west edge of the road moved eastward thereafter as it clearly continued in use up to the present day as St Stephen’s Lane, (S1).