NHER 28450 (Monument record) - Roman pottery kilns, quarry pits, road, field systems, pits, and inhumation

July 1991. Trial Trenching.
Extensive ditches in all parts of area.
Two Roman greyware/reduced ware producing kilns, topsoil concentration of slag. Remains dated to 1st/2nd century, a little 3rd century material. [1]
Also Late Saxon, medieval, post medieval unstratified pottery, metalwork.
See report (S1) and lists in file for further details. The results of this work are summarised in (S2) and also included in (S4).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 1997.68 and NWHCM : 2013.321).
M. Flitcroft (KLM), September 1991. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 30 March 2015 and April 2019.

15 July 1986, 5 July 1989. NAU aerial photography.
Cropmarks of trackway, other linear features and enclosures.
Now recorded as NHER 65077.
D. Edwards (NLA), 1993. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 12 June 2021.

1993. Geophysical Survey.
Revealed evidence for several more kilns, roads and other features.
See report (S3) for further details. The results of this work are included in (S4).
E. Rose (NLA), 17 February 1994.

June/July 1998. Excavation.
Excavation of selected areas in advance of development. No further kilns were identified, the geophysical anomalies targeted proving to be large pits. These features were interpreted as Roman quarry pits used to extract the abundant ironstone present in the natural sand. One had a chalk access ramp and revetted timber steps and two others had subsequently been re-used as wells. Material that had been deposited into these pits included large dumps of pottery and metal-working debris, domestic waste and building material. The presence of large flint and limestone slabs suggests that substantial buildings had been present nearby during the Roman period but had probably fallen into disrepair by the 4th century AD. A Roman road and its associated ditches were also investigated, revealing clear evidence for repeated episodes of repair and maintenance.
See published report (S4) and publication draft (S5) for details of this and earlier work on the site. The results of this work are also summarised in (S6).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2013.321).
Due to the depth of the covering soil on this site much of the archaeology was unaffected by the development and remains preserved in situ. See (S7).
D. Gurney (NLA), 22 July 1998. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 30 March 2015 and 17 May 2019.

September 2001. Stray Find.
Found during building work at [2]:
Roman silver finger ring, probably a product of the 1985 hoard 'jeweller' (see NHER 1517).
See description in file with finders map.
Submitted as possible Treasure (Ref: 2002 T007), disclaimed and returned to the finder. See British Museum's summary description and press cutting (S8) in file. This object is noted in the Annual Treasure Report for 2001 (S9) and has also been recorded on the PAS database [3].
A. Rogerson (NLA), 21 January 2002. Updated by A. Rogerson (NLA), 22 March 2002, S. Howard (NLA), 28 July 2010 and P. Watkins (HES), 25 August 2022.

The mapped extent of this record was reduced in June 2021, after the cropmarks previously detailed here were moved to NHER 65077 [4].
P. Watkins (HES), 12 June 2021.