Monument record HTT 059 - OUTLINE RECORD-Currently Occupied rural Settlements (CORS) Project, Hessett

A small rural village c.6 miles S.E. of Bury St Edmunds at 64-69m OD. The northern, lower-lying, end of the present (and 19th century) village takes the form of a linear settlement along a single central north-south-oriented street with a church in the centre on the east side. The southern end of the village is c.5m higher and arranged around a former small rectangular green (longitudinally bisected by the road) whose lines are clearly visible on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 6in map, and survive today as sharply cut ditches. There are several extant farms of pre-Victorian date origin in, or within 500m of, the village, some of which are associated with moats. Two other deserted moated sites also lie within 500m of the main village street.
Six test pits were dug here in 2007, bringing to 15 the total dug in 2006 and 2007. As most of the 2006 test pits had been in the south of the village, work in 2007 focussed primarily on its northern end. No Roman pottery was found in any of the 2007 test pits, leaving the total of Roman finds from the village over the two years amounting to just one single small sherd of very abraded greyware, found in HES06/8 in the south of the village on the edge of the green. On its own, this cannot be of any significance, and the absence generally of Roman pottery from Hessett to date is interesting to note. Pottery of late Anglo-Saxon date has been found in five test pits, all near the church, suggesting that this is the main area of occupation at that date. The high medieval period seems to see an extension of settlement, as four locations to the north-east, south and south-west of the late Saxon focus yield pottery of this date, including three sites which may have been farmsteads and one on the east side of Hessett Green, perhaps hinting that medieval settlement away from the area around Hessett church at this date may have taken a rather dispersed form. The distribution of the evidence from the late medieval and post-medieval periods appears essentially similar to that of the 11th-14th century. Further test pitting will be carried out in 2008. (S1)