NHER 31871 (Monument record) - Prehistoric, post-medieval and undated features and multi-period finds

July-August 1996. Trial Trenching.
Excavation of multiple trial trenches on site of new Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. The artefactual content of the topsoil was assessed by sieving samples of overburden collected at 20m intervals.
Relatively few archaeologically significant features were identified. These included a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pit (containing Beaker pottery), a potentially prehistoric ditch (that produced Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery), a post-medieval ditch and a modern pit. Several undated ditches, undated pits and a number of natural features were also excavated.
255 worked flints were recovered, the majority from topsoil and other unstratified contexts. Most were unmodified flakes and shatter pieces. Finished tools and other diagnostic pieces were scarce, limited to:
7 undatable prehistoric (but probably Neolithic/Bronze Age) scrapers and 10 retouched flakes.
1 Mesolithic blade core and a small number of finely serrated blades.
3 Neolithic/Bronze Age scrapers.
17 Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age large and rough flakes (recovered from Beaker pit).
Other finds recovered (the majority from unstratified contexts) included:
?Early Bronze Age ?Food Vessel pottery sherds (joining rim sherds).
Roman pottery sherds.
Medieval pottery sherds, ceramic building material (including bricks, floor tile and roof tile), buckles and ?medieval lead pot mend.
Post-medieval and modern coins, pottery sherds, ceramic building material, window and vessel glass, clay tobacco pipes, buckles, buttons, harness fittings, and unidentifiable metal objects.
Undatable iron objects, slag, animal bone and shell.
See report (S1) for full details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2). The Beaker pit is amongst those discussed in (S6).
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.146).
E. Rose (NLA), 2 September 1996. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 24 March 2014 and 5 December 2022.

2 July 1996. NLA air photography.
Large circular enclosure to north of hospital site, slightly irregular. It is possible that it is a geological feature, as the background cropmarks are very busy. A series of linear features are visible, which appear to be part of a rectilinear enclosure. Also to the southern end of the site are a linear arrangement of pits, although again a geological origin cannot be dismissed.
S. Massey (NLA), 26 July 2001.

January-February 1998. Watching Brief.
Field observations during topsoil stripping prior to construction of hospital.
No archaeologically significant features observed. Finds recovered included:
1 ?Mesolithic/Early Neolithic long narrow flint flake and 2 small blades.
110 prehistoric flint flakes, 5 blades, 1 retouched blades, 1 utilised flake, 14 retouched flakes, 1 irregular core, 3 scrapers, 2 piercers, 1 'indeterminate flaked tool'. Probably Neolithic/Bronze Age?
1 Iron Age pottery sherd.
2 medieval pottery sherds.
18 post-medieval to modern pottery sherds.
Various medieval, post-medieval and modern metal objects.
See report (S3) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S4).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 24 March 2014.

July 2010. Norfolk NMP.
The majority of features visible on the aerial photographs (S3) were considered to be geological, only two linear features have been mapped as archaeology. These are aligned northeast-southwest and run from TG 1825 0731 to TG1810 0698. They are likely to be field boundaries or land division of some kind.
E. Bales (NMP), 20 July 2010.