NHER 1076 (Monument record) - Medieval pottery production site and road

Pottery production site at Blackhill Wood.

April 1960. Trial excavations by D. R. Howlett.
'Site I' 74.4m (245ft) east of road along north boundary of wood, north of boundary.
This revealed a 12th to 13th-century pottery-making site on behalf of Norwich Museum, information from (S1).
Early medieval sherds found by [1].
13th-14th century pottery glazed and unglazed.
Aerial photograph taken.
Pottery held by NCM.
Site visited by A. Rogerson (NAU).

1960 plans and section in NCM.
Show spread of red pot sherds and fired clay (stoke-hole) and gravel spread (?roadway).
D. Gurney (NLA) 18 February 1997.

27 March 1980. Marked 1076/c1.
Further pottery collected from disturbed soil in wood by A. Rogerson (NAU) and G. Crawley (NAU).
E. Rose (NAU).

June 1983. Wood over main area of site cut down and ground ploughed.
See plans and survey by A. Rogerson (NAU), S. Ashley (NAU), A. Gregory (NAU) and [2].
Plan of mounds etc.
Sherds found divided into Context 2 - surface collection all over new fenced enclosure; Context 3 east of fence; Contexts 4-7 subdivisions of enclosure. Part of site to south not ploughed, some trees gone, outside enclosure.
Finds held by NCM.
S. Ashley (NAU) 5 July 1983.

Survey notes in file.

April - May 2008. Metal detecting.
Medieval sherds, no significant metal finds.
See list in file.
A. Rogerson (NLA), 18 June 2008.

A pottery sherd from this site was included in a petrographic study of late medieval and transitional (LMT) pottery from known and suspected kiln sites in Norfolk and Suffolk (Sample 4). Material was also examined from known or assumed production sites at Norwich (Mountergate, NHER 67512), Great and Little Plumstead (NHER 64833), Potter Heigham (NHER 8388) and Hopton (Suffolk), along with comparative sherds from 'consumer' sites at Norwich (Muspole Street, NHER 50560) and South Walsham (Suffolk). The sherds from the known and suspected production sites all have a closely related petrographic fabric. Those from the 'consumer sites' also had a comparable composition to the general petrological fabric represent by the kiln sites. This may simply reflects the homogeneous bedrock and superficial geology of this wide area, although it may indicate some degree of regional organisation to LMT production.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 14 October 2024.