Sudbury Town Defences

In the civil parish of Sudbury. In the historic county of Suffolk (Modern Authority of Suffolk, 1974 county of Suffolk).

Wade and Dymond write " At Sudbury the line of the C10 is clearly fossilised in the street-plan, beyond which the town expanded in the C12 by adding a new market and two new churches." Since the town's expansion happened in the C12 there is a possibility that the defences were still usable in the C11.
Suffolk HER records evaluation trenches dug 2002 discovered the ditch to be about 13m wide and 3.4m deep, which seem to have been backfilled in C12/C13.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TL871414

Air Photo from Air Photo and general mapping	1st edition OS Map from Mid to late 19th century maps
Modern Map from Landscape form and features	Modern Map from General location and route planning
Geograph British Isles occasionally has photos of the site and will usually give an idea of the surrounding landscape.

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 1149274
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is SUY 058 and others 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

• Books
  • Wade, Keith, and Dymond, David, 1999 [3edn], 'Smaller Medieval Towns' in Dymond, David and Martin, Edward (eds) An Historical Atlas of Suffolk (Lavenham) p162-3
    Warner, Peter, 1996, The Origins of Suffolk p133-43
• Other sources, 'grey' literature, unpublished works, etc. (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Sommers, M., 2002, Unpublished document: Suffolk Archaeological Service. Evaluation Report. SCCAS, No 2002/57, (SSF50056)