Monument record IPS 056 - Old Valley Brick Pit, Foxhall Road, Ipswich, (IAS 8903).

Major Palaeolithic site found in 'Old Valley' Brickfield.

1903-1905: Layard Excavations. Including Bronze Age Barbed wire decorated beaker excavated from circa 4 feet down (1904 or 1908?), (S10-S14).
1914: British Museum Excavations by R Smith, (S9).
1922: Boswell and Moir, (S2).
2004: Desk Based Assessment, (S7).
2005: Borehole and test pit information from the geotechnical report by Knight Environmental Ltd, (S8).
(S1-S14)

2007: A geoenvironmental and archaeological investigation was carried out at the former Bull Motors and Celestion Works in advance of redevelopment, where Lower Palaeolithic remains, including 134 handaxes, had previously been recorded in a series of excavations between 1903 and 1921, when the site was a brick pit. A trial pit evaluation established that the significant Palaleolithic levels were sealed at a depth of 5m and would only be marginally affected by deep piling for the modern development. A trial trench successfully located the earlier excavation trenches, and boreholes were sunk to a depth of 6m to recover samples for geoenvironmental analysis. This established that the Palaleolithic activity took place beside a stream feeding a post-glacial lake that became filled with brickearth. The related Pleistocene deposits formed during the transition from the Anglian glacial period to the Hoxnian temperate period, and Optically Stimulate Luminescence dating gives a mean date of c. 425,000 BP. An Acheulian handaxe was found in a secondary context. Pollen did not survive and no faunal remains were recovered, but ostracods were present (S1). This work was given the HER number IPS 524, since subsumed into this record and kept as a linked outline record.

See also: 1978 Excavation Corner of Bloomfield Street and Freehold Road, Ipswich by John Wymer, (S3).

See also: M.J. White & S.J. Plunkett, 2004, 'Miss Layard excavates: the Palaeolithic site at Foxhall Road, Ipswich, 1903-1905', Western Academic and Specialist Press. (S6).

Wymer (1985), (S3) Also mentions excavations in by Smith (and Layard?) 1908. These are not mentioned by either White & Plunkett, (2004),(S6) or Allen, (2007), (S1).