Lower Brook Street, Ipswich: PXA and UPD

Between January and August 2018 Oxford Archaeology East (OA East) carried out c.0.1ha of excavation and monitoring of demolition work at Lower Brook Street, Ipswich. The excavations followed two earlier phases of evaluation work conducted by OA East between 2016‐17. Lastly, on 10th August 2021, OA East attended the site to monitor the excavation of a remediation pit into a localised area of fuel contaminated ground. The archaeological works uncovered
evidence for activity predominantly spanning the Late Anglo‐Saxon to modern periods with some residual Early to Middle Anglo‐Saxon finds. Furthermore, the course of the former brook which gave its name to the street bordering the site to the east was identified, extending north to south in the eastern part of the site. Its associated deposits produced a mixture of reworked Anglo‐Saxon, medieval and post‐medieval artefacts (including an Anglo‐Saxon runic inscribed lead tablet) which indicate the broad period when this brook was extant.
In the northern part of site, west of the brook, mitigation Areas 8 and 9 uncovered dense Late Anglo‐Saxon settlement remains: ditches, pits and post holes cutting the natural geology. These features produced assemblages of metalwork, pottery, fired clay, animal bone, oyster/mussel shells, worked bone/wood/stone items and a textile fragment which can help to illuminate aspects of the inhabitants’ daily life in this part of the developing settlement of Ipswich. Bulk soil samples were also taken for plant remains. These remains, and other parts of the site that had not suffered modern truncation, were overlain by a build‐up of deposits dating from a period when this site probably lay within the grounds of the medieval Priory of St Peter and St Paul and the succeeding Cardinal’s College of St Mary. Although no features were excavated which could be directly related to these ecclesiastical foundations, the assemblages of medieval and post‐medieval pottery, ceramic building material (CBM), architectural stone, glass and the occurrence of disarticulated human remains may shed some (indirect) light onto this period. Deposits continued to accumulate on the site during the post‐medieval period where, away from street frontages, historical maps show this site to have been an open area of orchards, gardens and backlands.
The early modern malthouses mapped on the site, dating from possibly the late 17th century onwards, had evidently been largely truncated by later buildings. However, along with a few vestiges of c.18th‐19th century wall footings and a well, the intact base of a malt kiln was uncovered that will help to inform the type of construction. Brick samples were taken from the kiln and wall footings to aid dating of these structures. The malthouses were demolished in the early 20th century when a furniture factory was built, the surviving wall footings of which were evident across large parts of the site. The furniture factory was in turn demolished and replaced in the later 20th century by a printworks, the construction of which resulted in extensive truncation and disturbance of large parts of the site.