Monument record SUP 050 - Remains associated with a medieval farmstead, Land south of Gipping Road

Archaeological evaluation revealed a number of medieval ditches, mostly concentrated in the south-west corner of the field; their presence resulted in a 0.7ha excavation at that location.The excavation exposed a medieval farmstead consisting of field boundary ditches, enclosures and rectangular post-built structures. The farmstead went through two distinct phases of activity through the 11th to 13th centuries before being abandoned during the 14th century when a north to south aligned trackway ran across it. A large assemblage of pottery dating from the 11th to 14th century was recovered along with a small amount of residual Middle Bronze Age pottery which had probably been disturbed from a nearby truncated feature. Several segments of the medieval enclosure ditches had been used to dump a large quantity of charred cereal grain processing waste (S1).

Evaluation and excavation exposed part of an 11th to 13th-century farmstead, which extended investigation of features discovered in previous works to the W (SUP 025). The farmstead included a series of enclosures and associated field systems, within which were the remnants of 3 rectangular structures. 2 distinct phases of enclosure existed, 1 on a NW to SE alignment in the 11th–12th centuries, overlain by an EW-aligned system in the 13th century. A further set of ditches and a possible N–S aligned trackway were constructed through the existing farmstead during the 14th century (S2).