Goldings, Stonham Aspal SAL 035
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Goldings, Stonham Aspal SAL 035 Archaeological Monitoring Report SCCAS Report No. 2014/131 Client: Mr and Mrs Tydeman Author: David Gill December/2014 © Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service HER Information Site Code: SAL 035 Site Name: Goldings, Stonham Aspal Report Number 2014/131 Planning Application No: 2354/12 Date of Fieldwork: October 2012 Grid Reference: TM 14606 59815 Oasis Reference: ***************** Curatorial Officer: Dr. Abby Antrobus Project Officer: David Gill Client/Funding Body: Mr and Mrs Tydeman, landowners Client Reference: ***************** Digital report submitted to Archaeological Data Service: http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/library/greylit Disclaimer Any opinions expressed in this report about the need for further archaeological work are those of the Field Projects Team alone. Ultimately the need for further work will be determined by the Local Planning Authority and its Archaeological Advisors when a planning application is registered. Suffolk County Council’s archaeological contracting services cannot accept responsibility for inconvenience caused to the clients should the Planning Authority take a different view to that expressed in the report. Prepared By: ****************************** Date: ****************************** Approved By: ****************************** Position: ******************************* Date: ******************************* Signed: ******************************* Contents Summary Drawing Conventions 1. Introduction 1 2. Geology and topography 1 3. Project aims 1 4. Archaeology and historical background 3 Building summary 3 5. Monitoring results 5 Phase 1 16th century 5 Layer 0006 5 Fireplace 0004 7 Phase 2 17th century 8 Fireplace foundations 0003 8 Floor 0005 8 Phase 3 18th-19th century 9 The site prior to the construction of Golding farmhouse 9 6. Discussion 9 7. Archive deposition 14 8. Acknowledgements 14 List of Figures Figure 1 Plan showing the location of Goldings. 2 Figure 2. Plan of the archaeological evidence for the west wing of Goldings. 6 List of Plates Plate 1.’ Goldings‘ viewed from the NW 11 Plate 2. The site of the north-south wing following the dismantling of the frame 11 Plate 3. The position of the fireplace at the south end of the 16th century open hall 12 Plate 4. The foundation of 16th century fireplace 12 Plate 5. The foundation of the 16th century fireplace part excavated 13 Plate 6. The site of ‘Goldings’ following machining of the subsoil 13 List of Appendices Appendix 1. Written Scheme of Investigation Appendix 2. OASIS summary Summary Planning permission (application no 2354/12) was granted to demolish a fire-damaged wing of ‘Goldings’, formerly Golding’s Farm, in Stoneham Aspal and to replace it with a slightly larger range on a similar footprint. The timber-framed and rendered building was constructed in three phases and its final form reflected the standard layout of many East Anglian farmhouses of the 17th century with a central two-bay hall flanked by a parlour on the south and a service bay to the north. A ‘high-end’ chimney with back-to back fireplaces divided the hall and parlour to heat both rooms. In the original structure, however, the central hall was designed as a free-standing building open to the (now missing) roof in the style of a medieval open hall. This small structure was almost certainly built in the early part of the 16th century as a detached bake-house rather than a domestic house in its own right, and it represented a rare survival. Following demolition a shallow footing of the original 16th century chimney was the only part of the former building that could be detected below ground. The building remains were observed at a high level in the soil profile and above the depth at which most archaeological excavation normally occur and demonstrated why such building are rarely recognised on what are otherwise known rural medieval occupation sites. 1. Introduction Planning permission (application no 2354/12) was granted by Mid Suffolk DC to demolish a fire-damaged wing of ‘Goldings’, formerly Golding’s Farm, in Stoneham Aspal and to replace it with a slightly larger range on a similar footprint. The building was based around an early post-medieval timber-frame but renovation in the 1980’s had disguised its historic appearance and this together with an isolated position meant that it had been omitted from the schedule of Listed Buildings. Following the fire, an initial appraisal by architectural historian David Andrews identified the substantial remains of a 16th century building at Goldings’ core with 17th century and later additions. In mitigation for the total loss of a historic building, planning consent was conditional on a detailed archaeological record being made of the upstanding remains and (following demolition) the ground on which the building had once stood. A brief and specification for the survey and archaeological work was issued by Dr. Abby Antrobus of Suffolk County Council’s Archaeological Service and architects Richard Jackson Ltd commissioned SCCAS Field Team to undertaken the work on behalf of the landowners Mr and Mrs Tydeman. The building was recorded and excavated during October 2012. 2. Geology and topography Once part of a farm, Goldings lies isolated in open countryside approximately 1.2 km east of Stonham Aspal parish church, close to the hamlet of East End. It is situated at TM 14606 59815, above the 65m contour on the brown glacial ‘boulder’ clay that characterises the plains of ‘High Suffolk’. 3. Project aims The domestic housing stock of East Anglia between the 13th-18th centuries was made up largely of timber, box-framed buildings. The region is still populated by many standing examples but these tend to be the better-constructed, higher-status buildings that belonged to the yeoman class or above. It is perhaps surprising that of the countless other buildings from this period that have disappeared over the intervening years hardly any have been re-discovered during archaeological excavations; this is particularly true of those in rural settings. It is acknowledged that this unaccountability 1 King's Lynn King's Lynn A NorwichNorwich Norfolk Norfolk Lowestoft Thetford Thetford B SUFFOLK Suffolk Cambridgeshire Bury St. Edmunds Bury St. Edmunds A Cambridge Ipswich Ipswich Essex Felixstowe Colchester Colchester HertfordEssex Harlow Chelmsford Chelmsford 0 25 km 0 2 km 0 25 km 6 6 6 6 6 6 14 14 15 14 14 15 200 800 000 600 400 200 B N 260200 260000 SAL 003 259800 Site SAL 009 East End Road 259600 SAL 011 259400 East End Road SAL 027 A1120 SAL 029 2 200 59 Crowfield Road 0 400m TL © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Suffolk County Council Licence No. 100023395 2014 Figure 1. Plan showing the location of Goldings and those archaeological sites listed on the county's HER mentioned in the text. 2 is in part due the construction method for this building-type, whereby they are built without foundation and as a consequence make very little impact below ground. Evidence can therefore be extremely nuanced and it is likely that the reason for their absence from the archaeological record is one of a failure of recognition. The demolition of Goldings provides an unusual opportunity to examine what traces are left in the ground by a rural timber-frame house with the benefit of the knowledge of what went before. It is hoped that by this study to improve upon the identification of what should be relatively commonplace building-type within archaeological context. To further this aim the project was designed to: • Compile a high level record and written report of the structure (English Heritage Level 3). • Record the archaeological footprint of the building • Produce a permanent archive which will be deposited with Suffolk HER and make provision for the dissemination of results 4. Archaeology and historical background The county HER records that Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon finds have been discovered by metal detector searches of the field adjacent to and south of Golding’s Farm (SAL 009 and 011). The remains of moated enclosures surround Longland Hall (SAL 027), 400m to the south-west and East End Manor (SAL 003) 700m to the east, whilst Stonham Green (SAL 029) lies 600m to the south west (Fig.1). The building was the subject of a drawn and photographic survey to English Heritage Level 3 standard by architectural historian Leigh Alston. The results of the survey have been produced in a separate report and are summarised below. Building summary by Leigh Alston The timber-framed and rendered property was extensively renovated and extended in the 1980s, disguising much of its historic fabric and character, and was accordingly omitted from the Schedule of Listed Buildings. Fire damage to its thatched roof in January 2012 resulted in a grant of planning consent for demolition despite the substantial survival of its historic fabric. 3 The survey of Stonham Aspal’s houses by Penrose and Hill notes that ‘Goldings, a small medieval house, has documents which seem to relate to it from the start of the 16th century’, but gives no other details (Suffolk Review Vol. 4 no. 1, Autumn 1971). The map of the parish which accompanies this survey is based on early records and shows the approach road which now terminates at the property continuing north to other tenements and returning westwards to the church. At the time of the tithe survey in 1839 Goldings was a small tenanted farm of 26.5 acres (seven of which were pasture and the rest arable), owned by Thomas Buttram and occupied by Mark Moyse. The timber-framed structure was aligned on an approximately north-south axis and extended to a total of 14.2 m in length by an unusually narrow 4.1 m in width (46.5 ft by 13.25 ft), with walls that rose to 2.8 m at their roof-plates (9.25 ft).