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Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service
Bury Resource Centre
Hollow Road
Bury St Edmunds
IP32 7AY
This was an opportunistic excavation by the Suffolk Archaeological Unit in 1975 on waste land owned by Ipswich Borough Council and earmarked for development. Initially an area of 165 sq m was excavated at the far north of the site, nearest Stoke Bridge, but this was devoid of Anglo-Saxon occupation and a further area of 292 sq m was opened to the south. In both areas the 40-50cm of Victorian foundations and garden soil were stripped by machine and the features revealed excavated by hand.
The only constraints were the basements of Victorian housing, which had destroyed archaeological levels along the Vernon Street frontage.
A ditch (0090), six pits, postholes, and a linear foundation trench belonged to the Middle Saxon period (MS: c.700-850). At least three phases of MS activity were represented. A large ditch, 4m wide and 1.6-1.8m deep, ran north-south across the site. The lower 60cm was silted with sands and gravels but the upper metre, especially at the south end, included a thick layer of rubbish (oyster shell, animal bone, pottery, charcoal, metal objects, the single sceatta (0001/7402N), etc). Below this it was difficult to establish the precise base of the ditch, at one point, as a disturbance of unknown depth was found. Six pits contained Ipswich ware and a further three were aceramic, but of similar character. They were all medium-sized, shallow, and fairly unproductive of finds.
There were two possible structures. One, comprised a north-south foundation trench, c.10m long, 60cm wide and 20-50cm deep, on the east side of ditch 0090, and was cut into two sections by a Post-Medieval pit. The trench had an irregular base and contained many pieces of septaria, which appeared to be the packing for vertical posts set into it in two places. The south end comprised two separated irregular parts. Just south of this foundation trench was a group of 12 postholes . The postholes south of this form a rectangular structure, roughly 3m by 2m. It is quite possible that foundation trench 0145 is the east side of a building with the postholes forming a porch at the mid-point of its south end. The postholes contained no datable finds which is suggestive of an early (MS) date and the foundation trench had one Ipswich ware sherd.
From c.850-1200 (Early Late Saxon, Middle Late Saxon and Early Medieval), there was no occupation of the site. There were only 19 Thetford ware sherds and 6 Early Medieval sherds from the whole site. One posthole and one pit contained one Thetford ware sherd each which is far from secure as dating evidence.
Two pits were identified as belonging to the Late Medieval period (LMED: c.1200-1450) and there were only 52 LMED sherds from the site. Three pits belonged to the Late Medieval Transitional period (LMT: c.1450-1600) and possibly one posthole and one short slot. Pit 0178, 7.5m wide and 2.5m deep, was presumably a sand extraction pit.
Two parallel field drains, 2.5m apart, with interlocking fired clay pipes, running north-south at the north end of the site and five pits belonged to the 17th/18th century. The remaining features were 19th or 20th century. Three large pits were dug in the early 19th century and probably provided ballast for the construction of Vernon Street, adjacent to the site, which took place sometime between 1778 and 1867. The second half of the 19th century saw the development of the eastern frontage of Vernon Street with terraced housing. Three houses were built by 1867 and presumably the rest by 1884 (Ordnance Survey). The area excavated was for the most part ‘backyards’ and consequently contained the square brick floors of outside toilets, circular wells/soakaways and pits, together with the foundations of the rear ranges of the actual houses in the north-west corner of the site.
Further information can be found in the Site Summary which can be accessed by selecting the 'Reports' tab on the 'Downloads' page.