NHER 34566 (Monument record) - Multi-period features and prehistoric flint

May-July 1999. Trial Trenching.
Excavation of seven evaluation trenches (Trenches 16-22):
The majority of the features identified are likely of prehistoric date. Two irregular linear features have been interpreted as palaeochannels. Both of these features contained small quantities of Neolithic worked and burnt flint (1 blade, 2 spalls, 1 ?hammerstone, 7 flakes, 4 burnt fragments), indicating prehistoric activity in the area, and one contained two fragments of possible hearth or oven lining in its upper fill. Three inter-cutting pits were not associated with any finds, but exhibited characteristics similar to prehistoric pits recorded to the north of this area (NHER 9304). An inter-cutting pit and ditch also contained Neolithic worked flint (2 flakes, 1 scraper), but the date of the pit remains uncertain as its upper fill contained a sherd of undiagnostic medieval pottery.
Two gullies and a ditch were also identified, but these features remain undated. The ditch appears to have been back-filled and its upper fill contained Neolithic worked flint (2 flakes, 1 blade) and a sherd of Iron Age or Saxon pottery. It is possible that these features once formed a trackway or drove road.
The edge of a series of post medieval quarries depicted on the 1957 Ordnance Survey map were encountered in three trenches. The rubble fill of these extraction pits contained a post medieval clay pipe stem and a mixture of pottery fragments dating from the 16th to 19th century. The pottery assemblage may have been deposited with night soil transported from central Norwich.
See report (S1) for full details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2).
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.253).
E. Rose (NLA), 29 June 1999. Amended H. Hamilton (HES), 24 March 2014 and P. Watkins (HES), 5 December 2022.

February 2001. Air photograph interpretation (S3).
Area where excavation took place in 1999 (six years after photograph) can be seen, and there is clear evidence of human activity in the form of slight earthworks, however, specific features cannot be distinguished.
H. Clare (NLA), 20 February 2001.