Client: West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

In May 2023 West Suffolk Council approved a hybrid application by West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for a new hospital and multi-storey car park on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds. This is intended to replace nearby hospital buildings which have been in use since 1974 and have long since exceeded their intended 30-year life span. In part, this life span was dictated by the extensive use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a lightweight concrete material popular between the 1950s and 1990s, but prone to failure as it ages. The hospital project forms part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme.

PCA Heritage have worked closely with the client and their project managers, Castons Consulting Ltd, to deliver archaeological design and management services for the project. The site of the new hospital is informal parkland for Hardwick Manor, a ‘Tudorbethan’ country house. This has meant that below-ground archaeological remains on the site have not been damaged by deep ploughing, as they might have been if the site was a former field. A small valley with a seasonal stream bisects the parkland and excavations by Pre-Construct Archaeology have revealed evidence of prehistoric settlement along the valley sides. Further evidence from the prehistoric period has been discovered by the same team during excavations in a field beside the parkland scheduled for use as a temporary construction compound whilst building works are underway.

Highlights have included the discovery of a very large amount of Early Neolithic pottery in a natural hollow, possibly the waste from a nearby pottery. Other finds include a delicately produced flint arrowhead and a decorated collared urn, both dating from the Early Bronze Age (a period dating from around 1600BC to 1100BC in England).