Archaeological Evaluation and Palaeoenvironmental Assessment: Treading Windfarm Site, Sutton St Edmunds, Lincolnshire

Between 21st and 23rd September 2010, Oxford Archaeology East were commissioned to carry out an archaeological evaluation and palaeoenvironmental survey across a 2km site east of the village of Sutton St Edmunds, on the Cambridgeshire / Lincolnshire border. The investigation consisted of six trenches and boreholes within the footprint of proposed wind turbines and additional boreholes across the site to map the sediment deposits.
Two undated ditches were recorded, one located within the topsoil, high up in the stratigraphic sequence within Trench 4 and the other at over -2.93m OD at the very base of Trench 3.
The hand-auger cross section revealed a relatively continuous macro-stratigraphy to the deposits in this locality, with a change from a silt dominated horizon to a clay dominated horizon. This change potentially represents a marine regression from outer to inner/peri-estuarine conditions and would have increased the amount of available land for human settlement/utilisation, such as the recorded marine retreat in the Romano-British period, before a further period of marine transgression.

A silt dominated unit identified towards the centre of the site may represent a topographic rise in the landscape, and would have formed a favourable location for human habitation/utilisation.