Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 754: summary

Archaeological trial-trenching evaluation on land west of Hams Farmhouse, Back Road, Trimley St Martin, Suffolk - January 2014
by Ben Holloway and Howard Brooks (with contributions from Stephen Benfield, Val Fryer)

Date report completed: February 2014
Location: land west of Hams Farmhouse, Back Road, Trimley St Martin, Suffolk
Map reference(s): TL 2805 3862
File size: 3,005 kb
Project type: evaluation by trial-trenching
Significance of the results: **
Keywords: prehistoric, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, ?SFB, ditch, pit, ?enclosure

Summary. Evaluation by Colchester Archaeological Trust on the site of a proposed agricultural reservoir has revealed an Anglo-Saxon pit (which may be a sunken-featured building), and a number of prehistoric and Roman ditches and pits. There were also a number of undated ditches whose proximity to and shared alignment with prehistoric ditches means that they may also be part of a prehistoric ditched landscape, the field boundaries of which were principally aligned north-south. The largest of the Roman ditches may have been part of an enclosure sitting on top of slightly higher ground, a location in which the later Anglo-Saxon activity is also to be found. There were a number of modern field ditches. Two of them can be identified as a hedge boundary shown by Ordnance Survey map to have been grubbed out between 1968 and 1973. No archaeological strata or features were exposed which are worthy of preservation in situ. However, SCCAS have indicated that they will require further archaeological work in the form of a ‘strip, map and excavate’ exercise.