More information : In September 1993, RCHME's Cambridge office carried out an analytical earthwork survey of Clare Camp [TL 74 NE 10], following a request from Suffolk County Council for management purposes. The outer ditch of the probable Iron Age enclosure is cut away by the course of Sheepgate Lane, a deep hollow way that leads off Bridewell Street in Clare. The trackway follows the curve of the rampart of the camp, before changing direction to turn sharply to the West, becoming a green lane for circa 1.7km. At its greatest size the lane is 13.5m wide and 2.9m deep, with an average basal width of 3.0m. Two parallel embanked ditches, c.20m apart extend South from the sharp corner in Sheepgate Lane to the south west corner of Lower Common, where they apparently end in an irregular depression.
The section of Sheepgate Lane bordering on the camp and the two parallel ditches form a smoothe curve and are interpreted as originally part of the same linear feature, possible a drove road perhaps a diversion around the demesne lands of Erbury Manor (TL 74 NE 41), which may have been abandoned as part of the reorganisation of Clare at the time of the building of Clare Castle. The Green Lane which now has the name of Sheepgate Lane seems to be a later change of route. For further details, see RCHME Level 3 client report and plan at 1: 1000 scale, held in archive. (1) |