Elm Street, Ipswich - IAS3902

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, 2015. https://doi.org/10.5284/1034350. How to cite using this DOI

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https://doi.org/10.5284/1034350
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Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service (2015) Elm Street, Ipswich - IAS3902 [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1034350

Data copyright © Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service unless otherwise stated

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Primary contact

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service
Bury Resource Centre
Hollow Road
Bury St Edmunds
IP32 7AY

Resource identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1034350
Sample Citation for this DOI

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service (2015) Elm Street, Ipswich - IAS3902 [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1034350

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service logo

Introduction

Elm Street, Ipswich - IAS3902

Circumstances of excavation

The area to be redeveloped was covered with buildings, owned by Ipswich Borough Council, which were to be demolished to make way for a new Magistrates’ Court for Suffolk County Council.

The site straddled the known western course of the town defences, providing an opportunity to examine the sequence of construction and compare it with that recorded on the eastern side of the town at Shirehall Yard in 1959.

Site constraints

The site owners were not prepared to demolish the buildings until immediately prior to the start of development and, consequently, excavation had to be restricted to the open spaces between the buildings.

Following the excavation of trial trench 0014, an area (0464) and three trenches (0296, 0319, 0323) were opened between December 1974 and February 1975. The buildings were then cleared in May 1975 and permission was given to excavate a further area (0466). Recording of contractor's trenches took place in the summer of 1975.

Site summary

The earliest periods of activity (Belgic/Romano-British and Middle Saxon) were associated with very little dating evidence making it difficult to separate features from each period. At least two features, with 1st century pottery only, are of Early Middle Saxon/Middle Saxon date (0469, 0486).

The total of 52 sherds of 1st century pottery recovered from the site was all from the northern trenches (0296, 0464 and 0466) with a concentration from 0466 (19 sherds). 28 of the sherds were certainly residual in later contexts leaving six features which are likely to date to this period on ceramic evidence (0064, 0316, 0475, 0485, 0494 and 0498), and further features within area 0466 are likely to be of this date by association and/or stratigraphy.

It is clear that there was a cemetery on the site or more likely close by in the 8th/ 9th century. If there had been burials on the site, the extensive truncation caused by Late Saxon and Early Medieval features east of area 0466 would have removed the graves, but residual human bone, of probable 8th-9th century date, was found across the site and especially in MLS ditch 0465.

Ditch 0503 must be the medieval town ditch. It was only recorded in the building contractor's foundation trenches for the new building (trench 0504 and possibly in the west end of trench 0296) and was 12m wide and 4m deep. The upper layers of the medieval town ditch (0503) contained early 17th century pottery and brick, dating its final filling.

Further information can be found in the Site Summary which can be accessed by selecting the 'Reports' tab on the 'Downloads' page.


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