Monument record SUP 025 - Land south of Gipping Road, Stowupland

For evaluation see SUP 035.

Three areas of excavation were undertaken following on from the archaeological evaluation. In the north-west corner of the field were Areas 1 and 3, which revealed six phases of activity beginning with a series of early plot or field boundaries in the 11th-12th centuries, which were modified Suring the 13th century, along with evidence for quarrying. The 15th and 15th centuries saw the enclosure of Old House Pyghtle field and the introduction of a drainage moat and ponds to cope with the heavier clay geology in this location. This period also saw the piecemeal enclosure of fields in the area with some elements not filled in until the 20th century. A cobbled surface extended as far as Area 3. The use of the drainage moat ended in the post-medieval period, with deposits consolidating the ground surface so that the larger field could be utilised for agriculture. Area 1 became entirely part of the large arable field in the period after 1925.

Area 2 lay along the eastern edge of the field, and covered an area that contained traces of an earlier field system. The main phase of activity was during the 13th-14th centuries. This activity took the form of a farmstead or toft, of which only the corner was revealed in the excavation area, with the remainder continuing outside of the development area to the east. A possible droveway ran alongside the side of the farmstead, and a watering hole was present just outside. The occupied area was abandoned by the late 14th-15th centuries.

The artefacts and ecofacts recovered during the archaeological works are consistent with rural settlement activity in the Suffolk area and indicate the presence of cereal cultivation and animal, particularly cattle husbandry. The finds included three coins, clothing, adornment items, horseshoes, knives, nearly 24kg of pottery and CB<, 4kg of fired clay, fragments of clay tobacco pipe, glass and quernstones. The faunal evidence included cattle, horse, sheep/goat, pig, dog, mouse, domestic fowl, buzzard and fish bones. Environmental samples revealed mixed cereal grains, weed and dryland weeds, molluscs and charcoal (S1).