Monument record ARG 104 - Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age and Late Saxon to Medieval activity, Land to the east of Aldeburgh Road, Aldringham Cum Thorpe.

2018: Evaluation trenching identified two ditches and a pit of Early Iron Age date in the west of the site. A single medieval pit was present in the south-central part of the site. Other undated or poorly-dated remains could have been of similar date, though no cohesive patterning was apparent. A single demonstrably post-medieval ditch was identified. The majority of the recorded pits and ditches within the sites were undated. A number of the ditches conformed to various parallel alignments, some perpendicular to one another, and may consititute multiphases rectilinear field systems, most likely of earlier post-medieval and/or medieval date (S1).

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2018. (S2).

2019: Excavation.

Not split into Mesolithic a record as the were given flints have broad date and probably residual. Also seem to be from area of EIA activity as revealed by excavation, this could have bearing on interpretation. PXA is in prep (S3).

An archaeological excavation was carried out after initial evaluation of the site in 2018 found an Iron Age pit and ditches and post-medieval pits and ditches. The earliest feature identified by the excavation was a small, isolated pit containing a sherd of Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age decorated Beaker pottery. Other prehistoric features included part of a ring-ditch, a possible working area, sealed by a ‘dark earth’ deposit, and several pits and postholes, all of which contained Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Post-Deverel-Rimbury-tradition pottery and worked flints. One pit contained eleven sherds of Middle Bronze Age Deverel-Rimbury pottery. The majority of features on the site dated from the late Saxon and medieval periods, between the 10th and 12th centuries. The earliest period (10th to 11th century) was represented by three rectangular timber structures, likely barns or other agricultural buildings, with the site divided in two by a double-ditched boundary. In the mid to late 11th to 12th century, the larger of the structures was surrounded by a ‘D’-shaped enclosure with an entrance on its east side. A series of small ditches identified to the east of the enclosure formed possible cultivation beds. There was no evidence that activity on the site continued beyond the end of the 12th century and the land had likely been turned over to crops or pasture, which continued until the present (S4-5).