NHER 1171 (Monument record) - Medieval tiled pavement at rear of 10 Norfolk Street

Rescue excavation. Rear of Norfolk Street.
During construction work several 14th century Bawsey tiles were found in the spoil heap from a sill-beam trench. Permission to excavate was given, provided the work was completed within 6 hours. Two narrow trenches at right angles allowed definition of the original edge of the tiled pavement and recorded extensive modern disturbance to the north and east. Within this area 1.75 square metres (19 square feet) of surviving pavement was uncovered. It had been laid on a mortar bed, 50mm (2 inches) deep, over a carefully prepared foundation of chalk and mortar. The western edge of the pavement rested directly on a timber which had rotted. The excavator considered it likely that this timber marked the base of a wall, an argument supported by the pattern of wear on the tiles, which was very heavy in the centre and much lighter to the east and west. This suggests that the pavement was only approximately 1.5m (5 feet) wide and formed the floor of a corridor or pentice. Its north-west corner had been destroyed by the insertion of a brick plinth in the 15th or 16th centuries. One small area of tiles had been replaced. The replacement tiles were larger and of a different design, all clear-glazed over a white slip on a read body to give a yellow finish.
The only finds associated with this pavement were a few sherds of Yorkshire and Grimston jugs, including an arm from a face jug. Elsewhere on the site were found large parts of two Grimston jugs, sherds of unglazed Siegberg stoneware and post-medieval lead-glazed earthenware and Westerwald stoneware, and a Nuremberg jetton of c.1660.
See drawing (S1).
Pavement of Bawsey tiles excavated.
E. Rose (NAU).