Progress Power Project, Eye Airfield, Yaxley, Suffolk

From the 3rd to the 24th of May 2017, Oxford Archaeology East undertook a trial trench evaluation at Eye Airfield, Yaxley, Suffolk (centred TM 1255 7461) as part of The Progress Power Project. The Phase 2 evaluation comprised the
excavation of 89 30m long trenches, and revealed extensive, if somewhat dispersed archaeology.
The earliest activity is represented by a single prehistoric burnt mound and
associated pond feature, which are probably Early Bronze Age in origin. The
burnt mound was found immediately below the plough-soil and was
associated with a surface scatter of burnt flint covering an area of c. 144m2.
Two areas of Roman activity were also revealed by the evaluation. The first
included a possible kiln or oven flue, and was potentially an area of industrial
activity. The second comprised a scatter of ditches and pits and is likely to
represent the remains of a small rural farmstead. Pottery from these two area
spanned the entire Roman period, but with two apparent peaks in activity
between AD 40-100 and AD 150-300.
Evidence of Early medieval activity was revealed at the far north-east corner
of the site. The density of ditches suggests a small area of 12th century
settlement, the fills of which yielded pottery and an abundance of charred
cereals including free-threshing wheat, barley, rye and oats. The settlement
was located on the southern fringes of Brome Common, a former medieval
Green site shown on Hodskinson's map of Suffolk dated 1783.
Across the rest of the site a series of post-medieval and undated ditches were
revealed. A number of these corresponded to linear anomalies mapped by
geophysical survey, and aligned with boundaries depicted on the 1839 Yaxley
and Eye Tithe maps. Finds from the ditches were scarce, but a few sherds
dating from the 16th to 19th century were recovered