NHER 40504 (Monument record) - Late medieval and post-medieval pits at Norwich Bus Interchange

December 1996. Desk-based Assessment.
An impact assessment was completed to determine the potential impact of a proposed development site at the Norwich Bus Station, which is located within the historic Late Saxon and medieval parts of the city.
See report (S1) for further details.
S. Howard (NLA), 21 December 2009.

February 2003. Building Survey.
Examination of various buildings in the so-called 'Orchard Gate' area, prior to the redevelopment of the bus station site. Report (S2) includes an account of the history and form of the original bus station, which was built in the 1930s for the then recently formed Eastern Counties Omnibus Company.
See also (S3).
P. Watkins (HES), 10 November 2015.

June 2004. Trial Trench and Watching Brief.
Archaeological work undertaken during the redevelopment of the Norwich Bus Station site. A single evaluation trench was excavated on the site of the new Travel Centre and the subsequent watching brief took place at this site during the excavation of pile-cap pits. Limited groundworks were also monitored on the site of a new hotel on Queen Street.
Several late medieval and late post medieval clay extraction and waste pits were encountered. These features were sealed by a rapid build-up of garden soil, providing evidence for the disuse of extraction workings and their replacement by orchards and open fields during the late post medieval period.
See reports (S4) and (S5) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S6).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.47).
A. Cattermole (NLA) 22 March 2005. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 7 July 2015 and 12 May 2019.

August 2021. Field Observation.
Examination of cable trench being excavated along south-east side of Norwich Bus Station.
What were initially thought to be human rib bones had been uncovered, prompting the contractors to temporarily halt work and contact to NPS Archaeology for advice. Upon examination the articulated bones were found to be the partial skeleton of a cow or horse. They lay within a charcoal rich-deposit and therefore most likely represented waste dumped into a large pit of a similar nature to those recorded during the earlier work at the site. The feature also contained a quantity of disarticulated animal bones, most of which were from cattle, although individual elements of pig and domestic fowl were also noted.
The pit was almost certainly of medieval or post-medieval date, although the only datable objects found were two adjoining fragments of a medieval brick.
For further information see brief notes (S7) and photographs (S8).
The brick was identified by A. Rogerson (formerly HES) and has been added to the achive for the preceding work (NWHCM : 2011.47).
P. Watkins (HES), 9 September 2021.