Archaeological Excavation. Ipswich Northern Fringe, Land South of the Railway Line, Westerfield, Ipswich, Suffolk (Phase 1). Addendum Report (Area B)

This small area excavation was the final mitigation work required in the Phase 1 development site, the remainder having been undertaken in a previous stage of excavation works, in 2021. The Area B excavation comprised the investigation of a 320sq m area in Field B, in the north of the overall site. This was positioned to further explore the location of a number of parallel ditches/gullies of Iron Age and/or Roman date found during the evaluation and identified as possible cultivation features, such as planting trenches. The recorded remains comprised features almost entirely of Roman date. Although of limited extent, their intercut complexity defined two or possibly three phases of land use development, probably all within the earlier Roman period. These comprised six gully/trenches forming part of a parallel trench cultivation system that was replaced by two boundary ditches perhaps defining fields, which were in turn overlain by a large irregular pit-like feature of uncertain function. There was no evidence for subsequent land use other than a probably modern land drain.