Land South of Bull Lane, Long Melford, Suffolk

Between October 2017 and February 2018 Oxford Archaeology East carried out an archaeological excavation on land south of Bull Lane, Long Melford, Suffolk (TL 8705 4581). A total of 0.48 hectares was stripped which revealed evidence for occupation from the Neolithic to post-medieval times. Prehistoric activity dated from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age and notably included an unurned cremation burial of Bronze Age date. Most archaeological activity dated to the early medieval with a field system, also contemporary pits and post holes, identified. A second phase of medieval activity, centred around a small roadside building and a series of ovens which were proven to have had fallen from use by the end of the 14th century, was also found. The early medieval boundary ditches remained functioning as plot boundaries throughout the later medieval and post-medieval periods. Post-medieval midden deposits were dumped from nearby dwellings on the limits of the property boundaries at which time the ditches fell from use.