ARCHAEOLOGICAL MONITORING REPORT SCCAS Report No. 2005/59 OASIS ID suffolkc1-3490
1-7 Tayfen Terrace and 3 Tayfen Road, Bury St Edmunds. BSE 232 (Planning app. no. SE 02/1832/P)
Summary
Monitoring of ground works at 1-7 Tayfen Terrace, Bury St Edmunds revealed a series of large, undated pits; probably excavated for gravel extraction. A mass of furnace debris or more probably wasters from a C19th brick kiln was also found. There was no indication of the kiln on site and this material was thought to have been imported and used as hardcore to infill a footing trench.
Introduction
A series of site visits were made to monitor the excavations of the footing trenches for the proposed housing development on the site of 1-7 Tayfen Terrace, Bury St Edmunds. The work was condition of planning application SE/02/1832/P to demolish the existing buildings and construct a complex of two houses and six flats. The project was commissioned by Rees Associates on behalf of the developer Elliston, Steady and Hawes (Building) Limited who funded the work. Members of the Suffolk County Council�s Archaeological Service Field Team undertook the monitoring during August 2004.
The site lies at TL 853 649 and is outside the wall of the medieval town (Fig. 1). Tayfen Road is on the line of Tayfen Water, a tributary of the River Lark, which rises from a spring in Tayfen meadow and now runs in a culvert beneath the street. The site is on a gravel outcrop, which rises and forms a prominent hill (Station Hill) and the north side of the valley in which Tayfen water ran.
The County sites and Monuments Record lists one site nearby, BSE 137 where the town wall and ditch were sampled (Fig 2).
the site
line of the town wall
Figure 1 Site location plan
0008
0002 0009
0007 0004
0012
0003 0011
0005
0010
0006
a d
o
R
e n
y f
T a
BSE 137
Figure 2 Site plan
Results
A plan of the monitored trenches showing the position of a number of large pits and recent (Victorian) brick structures are shown in figure 2 and listed in Table 1. The ground surface over the entire site had been truncated removing the potential for any archaeological surface deposits; this appeared quite severe at the northwestern end where the site seems to have been terraced into the slope.
Context
Identifier
Description
0001
finds
Unstratified finds
0002
pit
C19th rubbish pit, 1.2m deep filled with loam and household debris
0003
pit
Pit filled with loam and clay, 1.1m x 60cm deep. No finds
0004
Pit
Large pit, (?)gravel extraction. Clean pale silt/sand fill. No finds
0005
Pit
Large pit, (?)gravel extraction. Clean pale silt/sand fill. No finds
0006
Pit
Large pit, (?)gravel extraction. Excavated to flint seam, cut by 0010
0007
Pit
Pit filled with loam 60cm deep. No finds
0008
structure
Brick lined tank/box, modern
0009
structure
Brick lined tank/box, modern
0010
cellar
Cellar, brick and flint C19th brickwork built into 0006
0011
well
Brick lined well
0012
finds
Over fired bricks, wasters or furnace debris
Table 1 List of features
The pits were all large cut into the underlying geological gravel. Pits 0002 and 0003 were filled with dark loams and clay and included household and building debris dating them to the 19th century. Pits 0004, 0005 and 0006 had clean silt and sand fills, were archaeologically sterile and undated. These pit were extensive and up to 2m deep. The trench section along the frontage of the street showed that pit 0006 was excavated to a seam of naturally washed gravel and large flints at c.1.50m below the surface. The cellar, 0010, for the tavern that previously occupied this part of the site was built into pit 0006, which had possibly been infilled around it. The dimension of the cellar closely follow the pit suggesting that the cellar builders may have taken advantage of an already open hole, the cellar and pub date to the mid-late 19th century and therefore pit 0006 may have existed as an open feature until this date. Other structures include brick-lined tanks or boxes 0008 and 0009, and a brick and flint lined well 0011. All of these were Victorian in date but appeared to pre-date and be unrelated to Tayfen terrace. It was not possible to interpret the tanks 0008/0009 and they may indicate an earlier industrial use of the site. Tayfen terrace itself appears to have been built off nominal foundations and these were not apparent in the trenches.
A large quantity of brick waste was recovered from the eastern side of the footing trench at 0012. The material consisted of a mass of over fired bricks, which had fused together. This material had been broken up into big lumps (too heavy to lift) in antiquity, and used as a rubble infill within an earlier foundation trench. The bricks were so intensely fired that some had become molten and vitrified making it impossible to identify individual bricks. Where identifiable there were no mortar beds between the faces of the bricks and they were not arranged in a recognisable bond pattern suggesting that they were not part of a bonded structure when subjected to the intense the heat that amalgamated them.
The bricks themselves were in a white firing clay with clinker slag inclusions, they measured 9� x 2� x 4� inches and had a shallow frog.
Conclusion
The site shows no evidence of medieval occupation, this is perhaps unsurprising given the sites position outside the town walls, although the truncation of the ground surface has meant that the potential for finding any had been lost. The pits were probably excavated for the extraction of
gravel and infilled with the unwanted spoil, which would explain the absence of occupation debris. The gravel extraction is undated but the possible reuse of one of the pits for the pub cellar suggests that this may have been as recent as the early�mid 19th century. The washed gravels and large flints at the base of the section alongside pit 0006 may have been what the quarrymen were seeking. Alternatively, and perhaps more likely in view of the site location (on the course of Tayfen Water), this could be the former line of the aquifer and the excavation may have become waterlogged at this depth. A similar band of gravels were observed at the base of the town ditch at the BSE 137 site suggesting that the ditch diggers may have also struck the water table (Tester 1997).
The bricks used to as rubble infill are interesting and may represent the spoilt contents of a disastrous brick kiln firing. There was no indication of a brick kiln on site, and there are no known brick works in the immediate area, but the site�s proximity to the railway yards means potentially that the bricks may have been imported from out side the town.
David Gill April 2005
References
Tester, A., 1997, �Archaeological Excavation Report:BSE 137 Tayfen Road Bury St Edmunds�, SCCAS Report No 97/55.