NHER 39860 (Monument record) - Medieval watercourse and post medieval occupation features, former Corona Depot, All Saints' Street

January-February 2004. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site. Contexts 1-228.
Revealed the presence of a medieval watercourse which had received a considerable depth of organically rich dumped refuse deposits. It is not clear whether this watercourse represents the old course of the River Nar, or an unidentified fleet. By the end of the medieval period the watercourse had become silted up and an episode of dumping was carried out in order to consolidate the ground surface. Finds from the site appear to relate to waste from medieval agriculture and industry, rather than domestic refuse, and included waste from cereal processing suggesting this area of Lynn was more industrial in nature. A large pit dating from the 15th to 16th century was found to contain significant quantities of bell-casting mould and tile, including a ceramic funnel for pouring molten metal, and a tube for venting hot gases during the bell-casting process. These finds suggest bell-founding of at least one church bell nearby, and indicate that as well as making bells the founder also made metal vessels. The medieval pottery assemblage is similar to that found elsewhere in Lynn, and included a large quantity of highly decorated glazed jugs. Leather scraps and offcuts indicate a cobbler's workshop nearby, and were found in association with leather knife sheaths with tooled ornament.
Masonry walls and floors of probable 17th century date possibly represent tenements to the north of the site and form the earliest evidence of occupation.
See report (S1) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.12).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 4 August 2004. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 27 April 2019 and A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 17 July 2019.

Pre 13 April 2004. Stray Find.
Casual find from spoil heaps of two NAU evaluation trenches:
Medieval and post medieval pottery sherds.
See list and finder's map in file.
A. Rogerson (NLA), 13 April 2004.

August 2014-June 2015. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of new residential buildings.
Prior to the commencement of this work the ground level of the site was raised by about 0.3m through the addition and compaction of brick and concrete rubble. A total of 92 piles were then drilled in three separate plots with the pile arisings demonstrating that a 1.5m deep deposit of very dark grey brown sandy silt containing frequent inclusions of ceramic building material lay immediately beneath the formation level. This overlay a similarly thick deposit of very dark brown clayey silt which in turn lay above approximately two metres of silt that was initially black and then mid bluish grey. Further silts and clays were present beneath these deposits with a chalk slurry eventually encountered at the maximum depth of the piles. No finds were recovered from the pile arisings.
The ground beam trenches subsequently excavated within the three plots revealed little of archaeological interest, being excavated to a depth of no more than 0.7m. One revealed a dump of early 20th-century glass bottles. Excavations for mains services and drainage trenches were of a similar depth and therefore also revealed no significant features or deposits.
Information from draft report, final version awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 16 April 2018.