Seven discrete areas of land were excavated by Archaeological Solutions
to the northeast of Stowmarket in Mid Suffolk, on the clay hillside
above the river Gipping. Four phases of medieval and post-medieval land
use were identified; the main period of activity was in the 13th-14th
centuries AD.
To the north of Cedars Park, where the hillside levels off to a plateau,
excavation revealed part of an enclosed farmstead. The remains of two
buildings with earth-fast foundations were identified, as well as
cobbled yard surfaces, numerous quarry and rubbish pits and a large pond
or watering hole.
On the lower slopes to the southwest was an area of roadside settlement
marked by regular property boundaries/drainage ditches either side of
Creeting Road. The direct relationship between the road and the medieval
boundary ditches demonstrates that it was in use by the 13th century if
not earlier. Because the excavation areas were set back slightly from
the road, evidence of dwellings was absent. However, the rear areas of
several roadside tofts, containing cobbled yard surfaces and the remains
of barns or other agricultural buildings, were revealed. Scattered pits
containing quantities of pottery, animal bone and other domestic rubbish
attested to occupation close by. Field name evidence indicates that the
settlement lay on the edge of a green which had been enclosed by the
early post-medieval period. It is likely to have been directly
associated with the medieval manor at Thorney Hall, 250m to the west. To
the east of the site, close to Sheepcote Hall, was a small
double-ditched stock enclosure which is thought to have been used for
corralling sheep, with another area of medieval roadside settlement
nearby at the junction of Creeting Road and Mill Street.
Cedars Park was probably settled under the favorable environmental
conditions of the 12th and early 13th centuries, at a time of rising
population. The spread of small, dispersed settlement sites across the
landscape was also a result of the gradual breakup of the large late
Saxon royal estate of Thorney into a multitude of separate manors. The
reasons for the abandonment of much of the site around the mid 14th
century are unknown but the Black Death and subsequent outbreaks of
plague, and the difficulty of farming the local clay soil in the
worsening climate of the 14th century, may have played a part.
The enclosed farmstead can be tentatively identified with a tenement
documented in the records of Thorney Hall manor court, which was owned
by one William Le Newman until its abandonment in c.1340. At the end of
the 14th century, the green-edge plots were probably held by one
Geoffrey Atte Grene. By 1408, Geoffrey's tenements had passed to Thomas
Mysterton, a gentleman, who is unlikely to have occupied them himself.
Changing patterns of land ownership therefore contributed to the final
abandonment of this part of the site. Subsequent agricultural land use
was represented by a series of field boundary ditches which closely
matched those recorded on the 1839 Stowupland tithe map.
The dispersed medieval settlements at Cedars Park were occupied by
people of relatively low status, with little evidence for specialized
agricultural or craft production and few signs of wealth. Mixed farming
with an important pastoral component produced enough food for their
subsistence and a modest surplus with which they were able to purchase
pottery and other commodities at local markets; most items found at the
site were produced within a thirty-mile radius. Similar small farms and
roadside or green-edge settlements were typical of the medieval
landscape of the Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk claylands. However, while
these types of dispersed settlement are well known from documentary
records and field survey, very few have been subject to modern open-area
excavation and the recovery of detailed structural, economic and
environmental evidence.
