Excavation of medieval green-edge settlement in Barrow, near Bury St Edmunds, and a wider consideration of early medieval agricultural expansion in the Suffolk Claylands

Authors

  • Tom Woolhouse Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Judy Mlynarska Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Nick Holder
  • Barry Bishop Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Ella Egberts Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Sarah Percival
  • Berni Sudds Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Kevin Hayward
  • Ruth Beveridge Wardell Armstrong
  • David Starley
  • Kevin Rielly Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Ryan Desrosiers Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Kate Turner Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Jane Wheeler Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
  • Dana Challinor

Abstract

Development-led excavation in Barrow, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, recorded an area of eleventh- to fourteenth-century occupation along Barrow Hill, now a road but formerly (prior to Inclosure) a wide drove funnelling into Barrow Green 250m to the north. The character of the finds and environmental remains from the site indicate fairly low-status inhabitants engaged primarily in subsistence farming. Although in some respects unremarkable, when viewed in their landscape context and combined with documentary records — notably a drawn survey and ‘dragg book’ of 1597 — the excavation results provide significant new evidence for the origins of the green-edge settlement at Barrow Green, and for the chronology and character of the process of early medieval clayland recolonisation in both this Suffolk parish and perhaps elsewhere.

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Published

03/12/2024

How to Cite

Woolhouse, T., Mlynarska, J., Holder, N., Bishop, B., Egberts, E., Percival, S., … Challinor, D. (2024). Excavation of medieval green-edge settlement in Barrow, near Bury St Edmunds, and a wider consideration of early medieval agricultural expansion in the Suffolk Claylands. Medieval Settlement Research, 39, 26–47. Retrieved from https://archaeopresspublishing.com/ojs/index.php/msr/article/view/2712

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