A prehistoric and medieval landscape with post-medieval brick kilns at the site of a proposed quarry at Brockley Wood, Belstead, Suffolk: May-October 2024

Archaeological excavation (five areas) carried out as specified in the project brief and wsi. An archaeological excavation was carried out on the site of a proposed new quarry at Brockley Wood, Belstead, Suffolk. Archaeological evaluation of the site had revealed features of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age and Middle Iron Age date, as well as pits, ditches, a kiln and a possible oven dating to the post-medieval period. These features were targeted with five excavation areas. Excavations revealed four hundred and thirty-five features. Archaeological activity was identified dating to the Mesolithic, Neolithic, the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, Middle Iron Age, Roman, medieval and post-medieval periods. The earliest evidence of activity was a small number of worked flints dating to the Mesolithic and Neolithic. The earliest features were pits, some recorded in small clusters, which contained pottery sherds and pieces of worked flint dated to the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age and Early Bronze Age. There was one pit dating to the Late Bronze Age and another to the Early Iron Age. The Middle Iron Age was represented by a large enclosure ditch which produced pottery sherds and fragments of possible loomweights. A ditch positioned across the entrance was probably used to control entry into and out of the enclosure. There was one dated post-hole within the enclosure, but other undated pits and post-holes are probably contemporary representing a roundhouse and curved feature possibly defining the edge of a rampart. Also present were a Middle Iron Age ring-ditch and an undated ring-ditch which is probably of a similar date. Evidence for the Roman period was confined to a few pottery sherds. By the medieval period, a series of ditches had been laid out forming a field system or at least three enclosures, with a series of internal pits and others scattered more widely. Pottery from these features suggested that the site was in use from the 12th to the 13th or 14th centuries. The most significant discoveries were two post-medieval kilns with the site being used for brick and tile manufacture. The 18th-century kiln was a typical two-flued structure with much of the sub-structure surviving including the base of the flues and some of the arched spandrels. The 19th-century kiln was a large six-flued structure with the base of all six flues surviving. Associated features included an oven, foundation trenches probably for a workshop and a number of quarry pits. Evidence for later kilns on the tithe map reveals an industrial centre at work for at least one hundred and fifty years from the early 18th century through to the mid-late 19th century. Other features include a series of post-medieval field boundary ditches, some identified on both the tithe maps and early OS maps of the area.