NHER 1211 (Monument record) - Medieval building, probable merchant's house, south side of Sedgeford Lane

At some time between 1963 and 1970. Excavation.
The excavation of a cable trench against the outside faces of the north and east walls of a substantial building had removed the banded filling of the foundation trench. On a foundation of mortared river cobbles and ballast, capped by an oolitic limestone chamfered plinth, were two to three courses of roughly dressed clunch blocks faced with mortar. Midway along the north wall one side of a doorway with a chamfered west jamb of oolitic limestone survived.
At the time of excavation no parallel for this building was known from King's Lynn, and a door through the front wall is almost unknown in medieval town buildings in East Anglia. The continuation of the plinth around the east side of the building is another remarkable feature and is good evidence that Cross Lane (on that side of the building) is medieval in origin.
Finds from the site included Grimston cooking pots and jugs, Yorkshire jugs, and an aquamanile, 16th to 18th century redwares and Westerwald and Raeren stonewares.
The excavator of NHER 1210 suggested that this medieval building is likely to have been a merchant's house associated with the late medieval quay or landing stage discovered immediately to the north of Sedgeford Lane, with these two plots of land forming a single economic unit.
See (S1) for further information.
E. Rose (NAU), amended by A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 5 March 2019.