Land at Purdis Farm Lane, Purdis Farm Archaeologial Evaluation Archive and Reports

As the result of a condition on the planning permission for a residential development on land at Purdis Farm Lane, Ipswich, Suffolk, the Heritage Network was commissioned by Taylor Wimpey East Anglia to undertake a programme of archaeological investigation. To fit in with the client's programme, and with the agreement of the Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service, the archaeological evaluation works on the present site were undertaken in two phases, each being fulfilled in sub-phases as the land became available. Phase 1 of the archaeological investigation on the site, consisted of the evaluation of the land to the south of Purdis Farm Lane, while Phase 2 involved the evaluation of land to the north of Purdis Farm Lane. Twenty four trenches in all were excavated, 6 during Phase 1 and 18 during Phase 2. A similar stratigraphy was encountered across the entire study area, consisting of silty sandy topsoil, over sand subsoil, which in turn overlay the soft sand natural. A number of undated linear features, all of which appear to represent the remains of either hedgerows or field boundary ditches, were revealed during both phases of the evaluation. Ordnance Survey mapping fromm1881 onwards was consulted, but no field boundaries are shown within the present study area in this period. This suggests that the field boundaries were no longer extant by the 1880s. No datable finds were recovered from the fills of the features No other significant archaeological deposits, features or finds were encountered during the course of the evaluation.