Post medieval agricultural activity on Land north of Abbey Street, Thorpe-le-Soken (EHER 80457)

All of the excavated archaeological features date to the later post-medieval period and are probably associated with agricultural activity. Remains consisted of four roughly east/west aligned ditches and a layer. The earliest of the features was a ditch dating to the 18th century that is not subsequently depicted on 19th century mapping. The remaining three ditches and the layer date to the 19th century. Two of these ditches correlate with field boundaries shown on the 1842 Tithe map. The third ran close to, and parallel with, the southernmost of these boundaries and may have delineated the route of a narrow east/west trackway.

Evaluation, 2016 The excavated archaeological features date to the post-medieval period and are probably associated with agricultural activity predating the land's use as an allotment. Remains consisted of four roughly east/west aligned ditches and a layer. The earliest of the features was a ditch dating to the 18th century that is not subsequently depicted on 19th century mapping. The remaining three ditches and the layer date to the 19th century. Two of these ditches correlate with field boundaries shown on the 1842 Tithe map. The third ran close to, and parallel with, the southernmost of these boundaries and may have delineated the route of a narrow east/west trackway. Most features contained broken part-bricks of possible 16th to 17th century date along with fragments of roof and floor tile, all of which may have been old when deposited. The earliest of the features is likely to be a ditch in Trench 2 as this contained 18th century pottery and is not a boundary depicted on 19th century mapping. A layer in Trench 1 could also be a relatively early deposit given that it contained residual medieval pottery and lacked finds of a clearly modern date. However, there were similarities between the ceramic building material recovered from this fill and that from the more modern features in Trench 1 suggesting that all may be broadly contemporary. <1>