The modern town centre of Ipswich lies on the site of its Anglo-Saxon predecessors. The earliest excavations and observations were made by Miss Nina Layard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Layard 1898, 1900, 1907). Pottery and artefacts recovered over the past two centuries from within the historic core of the town have been collected by the Borough Museum since it was established in 1846.

Investigation of the Museum’s collections by John Hurst and Stanley West in the late 1950s (Hurst and West, 1957) allowed them to identify pottery made in the town (Ipswich ware) pottery and...