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Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service
Bury Resource Centre
Hollow Road
Bury St Edmunds
IP32 7AY
Redevelopment for a new Crown Court at 8-10 Arcade Street and to the rear of 8 Lion Street led to a small excavation in 1979.
The developers would only permit excavation outside the development footprint, in an open area to the east, and immediately behind 8 Lion Street. The trench was c. 7m wide at the north, reducing to c.3m at the south. 1.7m of overburden was removed by machine at the southern end of the site, where pitting was dense, creating safety issues for the hand excavation. As a result not all features were fully excavated and the extent of some remains open to interpretation. During the post excavation analysis, some sections could not be reconciled with the plans and some features appear not to have been planned. This affects a few later features only and did not compromise the record of earlier features or the flotation columns taken through pits 0012 and 0040.
Features and finds recorded on site indicated activity from the Middle Saxon (c.700-850) to the Late Medieval Transitional (c.1450-1600) period.
Further information can be found in the Site Summary which can be accessed by selecting 'Reports' on the Downloads page.