Sudbury
showing the Saxon Ditch and Rampart

The
Great Ditch and Rampart was an impressive earthwork built by the Saxons
to completely encircle the town that had expanded way beyond the old
Iron Age defences. It was to mark the confines of the town until the
fourteenth century and today's street pattern within the old town is
a direct consequence of it. The date of its construction was unknown
and an attempt to determine it was taken in 1992-93 at a section in
Mill Lane.
The excavation was carried out under the direction of Stuart Boulter
of the Fields Project Division of the Archeological Unit associated
with the Suffolk County Planning Department. The opportunity arose following
the demolition of the nineteenth-century school buildings prior to the
construction of a new school. It was the first time ever that a site
had become available for examination on the line of the ditch to determine
its size and age and when it was filled in. Unfortunately its age was
not determined.
The profile and dimensions of the ditch, at least this section of it,
were revealed and were surprising. It was 21 metres wide and 3 metres
deep with a flat bottom and sloping sides. It was estimated that the
upcast, or soil removed from the ditch, would have formed a rampart
on the town side 15 metres wide at the base, 6 metres in height with
an angled slope of 40 degrees. This would have created a most effective
defensive barrier. It would seem that there was one main entrance through
the rampart into the town where present day Gainsborough Street begins,
at the foot of Market Hill.

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Click
on the area near the names in orange
for more details of that building
Plan
of Sudbury from around 1200 showing the expansion of the parish
of All Saints beyond the ditch. Modem street names are used.
This street plan, the historic core of modern Sudbury, has remained
intact ever since with the exception of Mill Lane which has
been replaced with a diverted footpath. One can plainly see
why Christopher Lane was called Wylewerfelane, every other street
or lane either follows the curve of the ditch or is straight,
indicating a planned Saxon town, almost certainly by Edward
the Elder in around 911-17.

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