Wingfield Street-Foundation Street, Ipswich - IAS4601

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, 2015. https://doi.org/10.5284/1034353. How to cite using this DOI

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Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service (2015) Wingfield Street-Foundation Street, Ipswich - IAS4601 [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1034353

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/10.5284/1034353
Sample Citation for this DOI

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service (2015) Wingfield Street-Foundation Street, Ipswich - IAS4601 [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1034353

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Introduction

Wingfield Street-Foundation Street, Ipswich - IAS4601

Circumstances of excavation

The site was surface car parks west of Foundation Street, and included Wingfield Street and Rosemary Lane to the south plus a strip of land south of the lane. The land was sold by Ipswich Borough Council to NCP with planning permission to build a multi-storey car park.

The whole area was within a scheduled monument (Suffolk 186) and scheduled monument consent was granted for development subject to prior excavation, which was undertaken by the Suffolk Archaeological Unit between March and October 1985.

Site constraints

An area smaller than the footprint of the new building was excavated for safety reasons and was excavated in three phases, in order to minimise the loss of parking spaces.

Site summary

The earliest features on this site, attributed to the Early Middle Saxon period (c.600-700) were two inhumation burials, one of which contained grave goods: an iron knife blade and buckle. Occupation of the Middle Saxon period (c.700-850) was found across the whole site with the majority of features in the western half of the site but this may be due to less damage from later activity, compared with the eastern half of the site. The total number of features assigned to this period, mainly on ceramic evidence were 5 structures, 36 pits and 9 boundaries. the two principal buildings (1176 and 1181) appear to front the east-west Rosemary Lane to the south.

Early Late Saxon (ELS: c.850-900) features were located across the whole of the excavation area. There were four sunken-featured buildings (0493, 1003, 1075, 1155), and an additional rectangular pit (0665), with no structural features, but probably indicating building remains and a post hole and slot outbuilding (1187). Early Late Saxon (ELS: c.850-900) features are located across the whole of the excavation area. However, none of the sunken-featured buildings were found on the west half of the site, suggesting that it may have continued as an enclosure for stock into the ELS period.

The tenth century occupation is the most intense and, significantly, concentrated on the east side of the site, with only three pits of this date on the western half. This lack of occupation may be partially explained by the existence of a contemporary cemetery. However, only six certain graves were recovered (0009, 0010, 0182, 0207, 0281, 0321) and two possible graves (303,305). They were all shallow burials, which did not cut the subsoil surface and, as a result, many were seriously damaged in the initial site clearance and the dating is not certain. As many as eight sunken featured buildings occupied the eastern half of the site over the course of the 10th century. The stratigraphic evidence indicates at least two phases of activity.

While the majority of activity in the Early Medieval period (c.1000-1200) remained towards the eastern half of the site, at some stage the area was divided by a ditch (0048) running in a west – east direction, which culminated in a butt end some 10 metres from Foundation Street. This ditch and ditch 0348 formed an enclosure containing a cellared building (0677), the remodelled MLS building 0697. The main feature of note to the south of ditch 0048 was a cellared building (0506) lying 6 metres north of Rosemary Lane.

A group of 8 Late Medieval (c.1200-1450) pits was located in the northeast corner of the excavated area, close to the Foundation Street frontage. Two of these cut the in-filled Early Medieval ditch (0048). Three more pits and a well (0017) lay in the southern half of the site. The evidence suggests that the whole area was a ditched enclosure not used for domestic occupation during this period

Building 1179, first evidenced in the 15th century and remodelled in the 16th, is documented as Felaw's House; used as a grammar school in 1483.

Pits and wells of the Post-medieval period (c.1600-1900) are located in garden areas behind the terraced properties which were built along Foundation Street, south of Felaw’s House, Rosemary Lane and the newly built Wingfield Street in the mid 19th century.

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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