St Helen's Street, Ipswich - IAS8804

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, 2015. https://doi.org/10.5284/1034374. How to cite using this DOI

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Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service (2015) St Helen's Street, Ipswich - IAS8804 [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1034374

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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/10.5284/1034374
Sample Citation for this DOI

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service (2015) St Helen's Street, Ipswich - IAS8804 [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1034374

Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service logo

Introduction

St Helen's Street, Ipswich - IAS8804

Circumstances of excavation

Suffolk County Council, as landowner, commissioned the Suffolk Archaeological Unit to excavate this surface car park in 1983, prior to its sale for development.

Site summary

An area, in the south-east corner of the plot, was stripped by mechanical excavator down to a layer of leached sand (0090), overlying the natural, c.1m below the modern ground surface.

There were no features dating to before the Early Late Saxon (ELS: c.850-900) however the site produced 1,368 sherds of Ipswich ware which were all residual in later features. Early Late Saxon features included six pits, one possible posthole and feature 0045 which was either a small pit or the butt end of a ditch/foundation trench. Two pits belonged to the Middle Late Saxon period (MLS: c.900-1000).

Almost entirely removed by an Early Medieval structure, the base of a kiln was visible in the south edge of the excavation as a surface of clay, heavily reddened by firing. A further remnant (0133) of the same fired clay surface was located at the eastern end of structure 0005, giving an overall length of c.2.7m. A ‘grey baked clay pedestal’ was recorded at the west end, implying that this was the oven and 0133 was the stokehole at the east end. The date of the kiln is uncertain but it was cut by Early Medieval structure 0005. The associated pottery was 35 Ipswich ware sherds, 69 Thetford ware and 2 Early Medieval Ware. It is, therefore, at latest, early Early Medieval in date, but the two Early Medieval sherds could easily be contamination and a late Saxon date is more likely. The shape of the kiln implies a single flue updraught Thetford ware kiln, presumably of late 9th/10th century date, similar to that excavated on the other side of St Helen’s Street (IAS 3601). The site produced 3436 sherds of Thetford ware, mostly residual in later contexts.

Two structures and three pits were dated as Early Medieval (EMED: c.1000-1200). Although the site plan shows structure 0005 cutting Late Medieval ditch 0012, there is no section evidence to confirm this, and the pottery assemblage appears conclusive that it is of EMED date. It produced 99 sherds of Early Medieval Ware and no later sherds. The structure, orientated east-west, comprised a rectangular pit, 2.55m long and 1.3m wide, at the top, and 70cm deep, with sloping sides. The base of the pit was lined with stake holes, delineating an area 2.1m long by 70cm wide. They were all angled parallel with the sloping sides of the structure and indicate that the pit lining splayed with the edges of the pit. There was no evidence that either the base or the lining of the pit had been waterproofed and it would seem most likely that the structure was a lined storage pit. Rectangular structure 0131, defined by three lines of stake holes, lay immediately west of structure 0005, and may be related to it. It was over 2.8m long and 1.8m wide. The north wall comprised 12 stake holes , the south wall by 13 stake holes and the east wall by 11 stake holes and post hole 0095. Although the south line of stake holes were vertical, those along the northern edge were angled to the north, implying that the north wall was leaning outwards. It was associated with 3 sherds of Early Medieval Ware and no later pottery.

Three north-south ditches two pits and a pit/tank belonged to the Late Medieval period (LMED: c.1200-1450). There were at least four phases of activity (pit 0048 was cut by ditch 0006, which was cut by ditch 0047 which had been recut). One linear trench/pit, two rectangular pits and one posthole were identified as Late Medieval Transitional (LMTl: c.1450-1600).

The east end of the excavated area had been heavily disturbed by two features. The earliest of these, probably of 18th century date, was linear, north-south, and 20cm deep, with an irregular vertical western edge. It had been backfilled with a uniform layer of sandy clay and had been cut at its north end by a deeper rectangular pit of probable 19th century date. This had vertical sides, cut 80cm into the natural, and was filled with a uniform filling of sandy clay, containing much brick rubble; probably the backfilling of a cleared out cellar.

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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