Find Spot record BLB 153 - Community Test Pitting - Blythburgh 2017

Thirteen 1m2 test pits were excavated in Blythburgh by 47 Year 8 and 9 students from Benjamin Britten School, Bungay High School, Hobart High School, Sir John Lemen High School and Ormiston Denes Academy. The test pitting was part of the Independent Learning Archaeology Field School (ILAFS). The earliest evidence found for activity in the village was during the Middle Anglo Saxon period (and around the time of the formation of the church) which was identified from a single test pit in the south of the village. Two test pits yielded later Anglo-Saxon pottery from opposite the priory land in the north.

Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History for 2017 (S1).

Test Pit 1: The Green, Priory Road, Blythburgh. TM 45166 75394 (Guestimate)
Test Pit 2: ‘The Sanctuary’ (north), opposite The Priory, Priory Road, Blythburgh. TM 45205 75320 (Guestimate)
Test Pit 3: ‘The Triangle’, off The Street, Blythburgh. TM 45244 75289
Test Pit 4: White Hart Cottage, Station Road, Blythburgh. TM 45342 75354
Test Pit 5: The Birdhouse, Angel Lane, Blythburgh. TM 45332 75279
Test Pit 6: 1 Angel Lane, Blythburgh. TM 45342 75236.
Test Pit 7: Hawthorn Farmhouse, Dunwich Road, Blythburgh. TM 45345 75117
Test Pit 8: Swallows Corner, Chapel Road, Blythburgh. TM 45287 78115)
Test Pit 9: Wolsey House, Chapel Road, Blythburgh. TM 45316 75166
Test Pit 10: Field south of Chapel Road, Blythburgh. TM 45174 75193
Test Pit 11: 2 Church Cottage, Church Road, Blythburgh. TM 45076 75261
Test Pit 12: Church Cottage, Church Lane, Blythburgh. TM 45036 75289).
Test Pit 13: ‘The Sanctuary’ (south), opposite The Priory, Priory Road, Blythburgh. TM 45211 75307 (Guestimate)

2018 test pits mainly concentrated on the W side of the A12. The earliest pottery evidence dated to the Middle Anglo-Saxon period, approximately contemporary with the formation of the first church in Blythburgh. Evidence of later Anglo-Saxon pottery was seen in three of the test pits, showing that this part of the village was the focus of settlement at that time. The village expanded during the high medieval period across the S of the Anglo-Saxon church, which became an Augustinian Priory during the 12th century; a total of 90 pottery sherds of this date were excavated from eight of the test pits. It may have been the presence of the priory which enabled the settlement here to continue to flourish during the later medieval period despite the various socio-economic factors that were affecting the entire population during the 14th century. Nine test pits yielded pottery of 14th–15th-century date. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2018. (S2)