NHER 1179 (Monument record) - Medieval cobbled road surface, Broad Street

Before June 1971. Systematic observation and recovery in street to west of 6 Broad Street.
A sewer trench crossing Broad Street at its southern end and to the west of No. 6 cut through a cobbled surface at 4.1m (13.6 feet) OD. This rested on a layer of clean silt 0.3m (1 foot) deep and was covered by a thin layer of heavily organic soil containing 13th to 14th century pottery. Above this was a layer of clean but shelly clay silt 0.15m (6 inches) thick, the surface of which was patchily cobbled with large flints. The dirty soil above this and beneath modern disturbance contained two 13th-century stoneware sherds. Beneath the silt, probably deliberately laid but possibly a flood deposit were: 0.45m (1.5 feet) of heavily organic silt loam, 0.3m (1 foot) of dirty clay silt, probably deliberately laid, and 0.6m (2 feet) of massively organic almost peat-like soil containing Stamford-type ware and Software sherds.
An almost identical sequence was revealed 45m (150 feet) to the north at NHER 1180. These two sites produced the only archaeological evidence for the medieval surfacing of streets in the town.
A. Carter (KLAS), amended by A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 10 January 2019.