NHER 26512 (Monument record) - Late Saxon to post medieval occupation, No 49 - 55 Cowgate

June 1999. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation before development.
Trench 1 (the more southerly and cuttnig the frontage at Cowgate) was dominated by an east to west aligned 16th to 17th century flint wall which had been reused as a foundation by later post medieval buildings. Several tile floor surfaces, earlier clay floors, and a small brick structure were associated with the wall; deposits predating it included clay floor surfaces possibly relating to the interior of a building, as well as hearths, rubbish dumps and make-up layers. The earliest feature was a large cess pit of possible 11th to 12th century date. Trench 2 exposed dark garden soils, flint wall and several pits cutting natural sand deposits in the base of the trench.
The north-eastern extent of the defended area of the Late Saxon town to the north of the River Wensum is not entirely clear. The absence of features and finds of Saxon date from the site might indicate that the present site lay outside the defended area. Cowgate may have been quite peripheral to the medieval city as well, lying adjacent to one of a number of large open areas enclosed by the northern circuit of the city wall. However the valuation process produced evidence of continuous or near-continuous occupation, maybe dating back to the 11th or 12th centuries, along the street frontage.
See report (S1) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2) (in which the site number is erroneously listed as NHER 26521).
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.275).
Ruth Fillery-Travis (NLA), 16th March 2007. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 5 December 2022.