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Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service
Bury Resource Centre
Hollow Road
Bury St Edmunds
IP32 7AY
The 19th century Congregational Chapel, on the east side of St. Nicholas Street, was demolished in late 1982 as a part of a redevelopment programme for the site. The chapel, 36m long by 14m wide, lay 5m back from the street edge and there was an associated graveyard to the rear. The Suffolk Archaeological Unit was given permission to excavate the site in 1983.
The removal of the Victorian inhumations for reburial, by a specialist company (Necropolis), was observed by the Suffolk Archaeological Unit as a watching brief. The use of an open-cast mining technique with a mechanical excavator caused such extensive destruction to the underlying archaeological deposits that the archaeological excavation of this area was pointless.
Excavation was confined to the footprint of the demolished chapel but was constrained by the proximity of the highway (St Nicholas Street) and adjacent buildings and the depth of deposits (over 3m). The battering required resulted in a trench measuring some 13m by 13m at the surface, reducing to an area of excavation less than 60m2.
The site had been so heavily disturbed by rubbish pits that surviving traces of the natural plateau were only found in isolated places on the west and east sides of the trench.
Numerous pits were found ranging in date from the Middle Saxon (c.700-850) to the Late Medieval Transitional (c.1450-1600) periods and a possible but extremely truncated sunken-featured building of Early Late Saxon (c.850-900) date.
Further information can be found in the Site Summary which can be accessed by selecting the 'Reports' tab on the 'Downloads' page.