Euston Estate Community Fieldwalking, Euston, Suffolk

An initial walkover of the area with the estate manager showed that the field was recently ploughed with good surface visibility, though the soil had been destoned, which likely reduced the number of artefactual inclusions present. The project targeted two contrasting areas considered likely to produce archaeological finds: the top of the slope, and the area close to the river, immediately surrounding a previously recovered coin scatter. Using GIS software, a 30m grid was automatically generated and superimposed over a map of the field, and two strips of 10 grid squares were selected (forming areas 30m wide and 300m long). These areas were staked out on the field using a Leica GPS before the volunteers arrived on Day 1. Each day began at the car park area with a safety briefing and introduction to the history of the surrounding area (delivered by Faye Minter of SCCAS) and an artefact identification training session (delivered by CA staff). Volunteers proceeded to the survey area for two fieldwalking sessions. Two areas were fieldwalked by volunteers over the course of three days: each day's group walked part of Area A in the morning, and part of Area B in the afternoon, starting where the previous group had finished. However, on Day 2, the starting position of the afternoon session was adjusted to be closer for access, to facilitate participation for less mobile volunteers and maximise overall time spent fieldwalking. With time restrictions, this eventually resulted in two squares of Area B not being fieldwalked. This decision was taken to prioritise the training and experiential aspects of the project for volunteers over producing a neat, continuous survey area. Teams of volunteers (between 20 and 25 volunteers per day) were accompanied by two trained archaeological staff. The entire group walked in a line from one end of a grid square to the other, each volunteer surveying a strip about 1.5m wide. After walking each grid square, any finds were collected and discussed as a group, with some brief identifications by CA staff before being bagged and labelled with the grid square number. Grid squares were labelled according to the GIS-generated grid labels. A Leica GPS was kept on hand to record a more specific location should any metal artefacts of archaeological significance be recovered; however, no such finds were encountered. A community-led fieldwalking survey at the Euston Estate in Suffolk revealed a concentration of prehistoric worked and heat affected flint, and a wider assemblage including ceramic building material, and pottery of Roman, medieval and post-medieval date.