Land South of Hinderclay Road, Redgrave, Suffolk: An Archaeological Evaluation

The evaluation consisted of the excavation and investigation of 1500m of trial trench (50no. 30m trenches at 2.0m wide) within the site, which equated to a 4% sample evaluation of the c. 6.8ha area. The trenches were positioned to target anomalies identified by the geophysical survey, while also providing a representative sample of the whole site. A geophysical survey of the site had shown a pattern of linear anomalies that were interpreted as probable field boundary ditches, most likely dating to the post-medieval period, and several curvilinear anomalies of uncertain origin. The trial trenching identified evidence for prehistoric activity on the site, largely in the form of residual struck flint of Early Neolithic date in later features. A small number of Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery sherds were also recovered as residual finds. In the north-western part of the site, specifically in Trenches 2, 3, 4, 11 and 16, the remains of an Early Roman agricultural ditch system were encountered, along with the cremated remains of a child buried in a small pit adjacent to one of the ditches and two intercutting pits. A small assemblage of Late Iron Age transitional and Early Roman pottery was recovered from the ditch system, but the sherds were very abraded, suggesting that they had been spread through the process of manuring from Roman middens in the locality. There was no evidence to indicate Roman domestic occupation within the site, the land probably serving as farmland associated with a nearby farmstead or villa. The presence of the cremation also indicates an agricultural function for the ditch system, as Roman cremations were generally placed on the periphery of areas of occupation. The land is likely to have remained as farmland throughout the medieval period and was later enclosed in the post-medieval period into a shifting pattern of small fields that were later amalgamated into larger fields to suit modern mechanised farming. Former field boundaries were encountered in many of the trenches, most of which had been detected by the geophysical survey. Dating evidence from these ditches was sparse, but one of the ditches contained pottery sherds, fragments of clay pipe stem and roof tile that dates to the 18th to 19th centuries. An extensive, shallow layer in Trench 22 is probably the base of a post-medieval midden, where manure was stored for later spreading on the fields. Other extensive layers in Trenches 17, 20 and 33 filled naturally-formed hollows. Numerous ceramic land drains were also recorded in trenches across the site.