Series: East Anglian Archaeology

It is eighty years since a comprehensive survey of Suffolk Anglo-Saxon material was published by R.A.Smith in the Victoria County History, and thirty years since R.Rainbird-Clarke's provocative discussion in his East Anglia. The great surge of interest that has occurred since the 1950s — excavations, field surveys, and the rapidly increasing reported discoveries — combine to make a new survey and catalogue highly desirable. The corpus includes as much of the previously unpublished material as possible, but the treatment of some categories of finds, particularly from the recently published sites, has had to be selective. The work is essentially a catalogue, presented at a time of rapidly-changing views and approaches to the Anglo-Saxons and the appreciation of their ongoing contribution to our heritage. It is intended that it should be used as a primary source for the artefacts and their distribution in Suffolk as a basis for the greater understanding of the mechanics of the establishment and development of Anglo-Saxon East Anglia.

A hoard of coins of the shadowy East Anglian King Beonna triggered off a project which revealed not only late Neolithic activity but also a Viking burial and a small part of a rural settlement of the 8th to 13th centuries AD. Saturation coverage by metal detector at all stages of the work produced a large assemblage of metal objects which suggests that the 'normal' quantity and range of finds collected from conventionally excavated sites may often fall short of the true population.

Construction of a water supply pipeline in Cambridgeshire provided an opportunity to sample the prehistoric landscape along a transect that crossed several major geological boundaries. This narrow window ran from the Lower Chalk of the ancient peninsula of Isleham, across the heavy low-lying clays of Soham and down into the peat fen of Stuntney and south-east Ely. Within the constraints set by the development, field investigation and subsequent analysis were conducted at several scales. In the initial stage, attention focused on predicted occupation areas (principally at the fen margins), while the intervening landscape — between these areas and known sites — was sampled. Along with palaeoenvironmental data, samples of flint, burnt flint and other materials provided a context within which to explore specific models for interpreting the character of later prehistoric landscape occupation across a diverse set of conditions. As a consequence of landscape sampling, six significant site areas were designated for archaeological investigation. These were located at the neck of the sand and chalk peninsula of Isleham, extending down its gradually sloping western edge towards the braided palaeochannels of the River Snail. This occupation-rich zone on the chalk contrasted sharply with areas of the fen that showed little evidence of early occupation where crossed by the pipeline. Two of these sites saw more extensive fieldwork funded by English Heritage, and these form the main body of the report. These different scales and intensities of work in the field are reflected in the structure of the report. The extensive survey and evaluation is dealt with in Chapter 2 and provides a full record of work conducted along the length of the pipeline corridor. Chapter 3 documents the more limited investigations conducted at four of the site areas identified in stage 1. The core of the volume lies in Chapters 4 and 5, which deal with the more substantive records arising from work at Prickwillow Road and around the palaeochannels of the River Snail. Dominated by Early Bronze Age and Earlier Neolithic material respectively, these 'sites' add a significant body of information to our understanding of the later prehistoric sequence in the area, data which are set in broader context in Chapter 6.

Throughout the medieval period the manor of Southchurch Hall belonged to Christ Church Canterbury, and many of its tenants were prominent in local and national politics. In 1922 Southchurch Hall was still operating as a farm but under serious threat of destruction from the rapid expansion of Southend. Fortunately, a group of prominent individuals linked by membership of the local antiquarian society and the Society of Antiquaries, actively sought to preserve the threatened building and its earthworks. The group attracted C.R. Peers to examine the standing structure and Mortimer Wheeler the surrounding earthworks. Southend Borough Council acquired the hall, which was extensively restored in the late 1920s and opened as a branch library in 1931, with the earthworks preserved as a public park. By the early 1970s the hall was about to become a branch of Southend Museums. Excavations were begun to locate remains of the numerous manorial buildings known from documentary sources. In part the work was threat led but most of the areas examined were chosen specifically to address questions, some originally posed by Wheeler in the 1920s, regarding the development of the moat, mound and other structures and their relationship to the documentary resources. The excavations revealed the remains of an early 13th-century manorial centre enclosed by a ditch and then a moat. Major 14th-century refurbishments included an imposing gatehouse and the rather more modest timber-framed hall which survives today. Large assemblages of artefacts were recovered, notably pottery, metal objects, leather work and glass. The material reflects widespread contacts facilitated both by the site's geographical location on the Thames estuary, and by the social prominence of its occupants. A full survey of the timber-framed hall was carried out, and selective analysis of the extensive documentary sources relating to the site. These are used together with the excavated evidence to provide an integrated account of the site and its setting.

In Essex, the Mapping Programme has been carried out by Historic Environment, Essex County Council as part of the English Heritage national initiative. It is part of the continuing development of a broader historic environment record for Essex that includes thematic information. The mapping project covered 190 Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 quarter-sheets and the available aerial photographs from several different sources were examined for visible archaeological features. More than 10,700 archaeological sites have been mapped and recorded, of which 13.2% were new to the Essex Historic Environment Record. GIS has allowed the mapped archaeological features to be viewed in a landscape context and in conjunction with other geographical information such as geology, topography and historic mapping. This has both aided the interpretation of features and allowed new classifications to be established. Consequently, detailed analysis has been carried out on Neolithic monuments within their surrounding landscapes, as well as an assessment of prehistoric and Roman settlement within Essex. Many aspects of the medieval landscape still exist in Essex today, and some have been mapped as part of the programme. Field boundary loss that has occurred since the Second World War has also been mapped, and this, combined with settlement patterns, has allowed analysis of the medieval landscape to be completed. Essex is a county with a long and varying coastline and many new coastal sites were mapped, including fish weirs, red hills and oyster pits, all of which have given an insight into the use of the coastal resource. Without the mapping programme, many of these sites would have gone unrecorded and, in some cases, unprotected. Instead, the mapping allowed some fish weir sites to be managed and scheduled. The final aspect examined in this report concerns the varied monuments of the Second World War, many of which have been recorded and mapped for the first time. Aerial photography is often the only record for these sites and by examining RAF and other contemporary photography, a better understanding of the defences within the county has been gained.

An early Anglo-Saxon cemetery was identified and excavated within the grounds of the former Park School, Rayleigh, in advance of development. The remains of 145 cremation burials, a further four possible cremation burials, a single possible inhumation burial and sixteen cemetery-related features were excavated over an area of 4325 sq m, most of which had been severely truncated. Although the majority of the cemetery appeared to be within the area of excavation, it is highly likely that further burials lie beyond the southern limit of the development. Pottery vessels, metalwork and glass beads recovered from the burials indicate that the cemetery was in use from the second half of the 5th century through to the mid 6th century AD, and possibly into the late 6th. A relative paucity of higher status objects, including a complete lack of copper-alloy jewellery, suggests that the interred were part of a low-status, but fairly average, agricultural community. Some of the styles of pottery decoration have parallels in the cemetery at Mucking and in cemeteries in North Kent, indicating cross-Thames movement of goods and craftsmen and perhaps a shared ethnic identity. A range of pyre goods were recovered in addition to the cremated human bone; all had been burnt at high temperatures. No pyre locations were identified, however. Pyre goods included the remains of food animals, secondary pottery vessels, glass beads and drinking vessels, copper-alloy bucket fittings, iron buckles, knife blades and possible shield rivets. One pit contained a relatively large amount of pyre goods and debris that appeared to have been deliberately buried. The possible inhumation burial contained a complete unburnt glass, amber and jet bead necklace, an iron knife blade and a copper-alloy suspension ring. The Rayleigh cemetery was situated on the edge of a localised high point overlooking the floodplain of the River Crouch. It may have served a nearby settlement or a number of dispersed rural communities situated on the lower ground to the north and west. Underlying the cemetery was a scatter of prehistoric and Roman features that attest to earlier occupation of the landscape. Early Saxon cemeteries in Essex usually contain inhumation burials or a mix of inhumation and cremation burials. The Rayleigh cemetery is therefore unusual in being predominately comprised of cremation burials. However, it is unlikely that the complete cemetery was excavated and it is possible that further inhumation burials exist to the south of the development area.

A long-term, low-cost rescue project was undertaken in response to gravel quarrying at Maxey between 1983 and 1990. Throughout, the archaeological focus was the more or less concurrent excavation taking place at the Etton causewayed enclosure, a site which was effectively a central point within this part of the lower Welland valley. The Etton Landscape consists of the relict river systems, former floodplain and lowermost parts of the Welland First Terrace gravels between the modern villages of Maxey, Etton and Northborough. Situated on the fringe of this seasonally wet landscape was a series of later Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments and more enigmatic areas of occupation. The principal monuments, other than the Etton causewayed enclosure, were three small henges which exhibited several phases of re-modelling, a C-shaped enclosure, the Etton Woodgate contour ditched 'enclosure' and associated settlement, and four barrows (out of many more that are in the vicinity). The occupation areas were relatively few and ephemeral, often only consisting of a 'spread' of occupation or midden material within the buried soil, a few post-holes and/or pits in no apparent pattern or structure. There is also evidence of field demarcation on the floodplain edge in the later Neolithic. All of these sites straddled the period of later use of the causewayed enclosure, in the third millennium and early second millennium BC. There seems to have been at this time a mosaic of 'old' and 'new' environments, ranging from old woodland to pasture and small zones of scrubby, fen-like carr, with the stream zones being affected by seasonal freshwater flooding and the minor deposition of silty clay alluvium. By the middle part of the second millennium BC, field systems laid out at right angles to the contemporary streams were in use, with successive versions of the same general layout continuing on into the Roman period. Throughout the last two millennia BC there was a gradual opening up of the landscape, on the face of it largely pasture, but probably with some arable cultivation on the higher and better drained ground. By the later Roman period, it appears that the area was more and more affected by the seasonal deposition of alluvium and overbank flooding, which led to the establishment of a loose and scattered layout of farmsteads and associated field systems on the higher parts of the first terrace. By medieval times, the higher parts of the terrace were completely given over to ridge and furrow cultivation, with villages established to the north and south, and the lowest zones occupied by infilled stream courses still remaining seasonally wet and possibly used as seasonal, unenclosed pasture. This more or less remained the case until 1953, when the enlargement of the Maxey Cut effectively drained the lowest parts of the terrace and permitted an expansion of arable agriculture onto the most thickly alluviated parts of the lower Welland valley between Maxey and the fen-edge.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of archaeologists and naturalists showed that numerous archaeological sites were present within the intertidal zone in Essex, and that it presented considerable potential for integrating archaeological research within a firm environmental framework. The County Archaeological Service undertook a detailed survey of the Hullbridge area which produced such promising results that the project was extended to cover the major estuaries in Essex, plus the Clacton and Dovercourt areas. This report contains an introductory stratigraphic and environmental framework. The period-by-period site descriptions which follow reflect the changing nature of the archaeology during the transgression. Hence, dryland Mesolithic and Neolithic sites that existed when sea-levels were considerably lower are followed by Bronze and Iron Age sites where waterlogged wood was common. The importance of Red Hills to the late Iron Age and Roman economies is shown, and the major drainage projects and sea-wall construction of the medieval and post-medieval periods are also covered.

Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out a programme of archaeological work in King's Lynn integrated with redevelopment of the Vancouver Centre and construction of the Clough Lane multi-storey car park. Despite extensive modern construction, archaeological features, structures and deposits of medieval date (12th–15th centuries) were recorded along the existing frontages of Broad Street and New Conduit Street. Archaeological deposits, building foundations and yard surfaces of late medieval/post-medieval date (15th and 16th–18th centuries) were recorded in localised areas in the car parks to the rear of Sainsburys', the rear of Broad Street and to the south west of New Conduit Street. In addition to the archaeological remains, burials were exhumed and re-interred from a Quaker Cemetery to the north of New Conduit Street and a Baptist Cemetery to the rear of Broad Street. Piezometers were installed in order to carry out a two-year monitoring programme on the physical and chemical effects of the development's piled construction on the underlying, and otherwise unexposed, reclaimed marine and estuarine sediments.

Baconsthorpe Castle was a fortified manor house near Holt in north-east Norfolk. It was first purchased by the Heydon family in the early fifteenth century and remained in their hands until about 1680. The property comprised, at various stages, an inner moated enclosure, an outer court and gatehouse, a barn, a mere, formal gardens and park. The fortunes of the Heydon family prospered until the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century and much imported pottery and glass has been found on the site. The report records the small amount of archaeological excavation which has taken place at Baconsthorpe, contains an analysis of the buildings, a survey of the earthworks, and draws together all finds and documentary evidence extant for the site and its owners.