Monument record EYE 236 - OUTLINE RECORD: Part of the outer bailey ditch of Eye Castle at Eye Library, Buckshorn Lane (BRIT) EVL

2020: The evaluation was undertaken due to the site’s proximity to Eye Castle, a scheduled monument, the boundary of which lies 50m away. The evaluation identified the line of the outer bailey defensive ditch for Eye Castle, as well as located the probable location of one of the moat bridges that was most likely destroyed in the 13th century. A timber was found, which appears to be a plate from the base of a structure in the bottom of the ditch; this is thought to have been the baseplate of a trestle for a timber bridge spanning the ditch. Aspects of the technology point to a date range for this structure; the trestle is dated between, at the earliest, c.1200 and the demolition of the castle in c.1265. It is unlikely that this was the first bridge on this site, as this side faces the market in Eye and so may therefore be part of the last bridge across the outer bailey ditch. The trestle was deliberately dismantled and the plate, as a very heavy and waterlogged piece of timber, may simply have been too difficult to lift out and so was deliberately abandoned as the ditch was filled. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2020 (S1). Full report to follow.