Land Northwest of Haverhill (Relief Road)

Between 2nd and 5th August 2021 Oxford Archaeology East (OA East) carried out a trenched evaluation at Land Northwest of Haverhill, Suffolk (TL 67939 46747). The evaluation, commissioned by RPS, comprised the excavation of 10 trenches along a previously unevaluated part of a proposed relief road associated with housing development and mitigation excavation work by OA East in 2018 at Chapel Farm/Boyton Hall (Fig. 1).
Five of the trenches contained no archaeological features or deposits. In total, five linear ditches, three pits and a possible post-hole were revealed within the remaining five trenches, none of which yielded any dating evidence. Sampling of two of the ditch fills confirmed a similar absence of environmental evidence from this site. The ditches generally follow the same south-west to north-east alignment as the main field boundaries shown in this area on the first edition Ordnance Survey map. The general absence of finds and sterile nature of the fills perhaps suggests a post-medieval origin for these features, post-dating the 14th century decline of the nearby focus of medieval settlement remains excavated at Chapel Farm.