NHER 41168 (Monument record) - Medieval ditches and pits on Land to the Rear of the Ostrich Inn

February 2005. Trial Trenching.
The evaluation revealed two large features both cut into the natural drift deposit (which was of flint gravel in a matrix of orange silty clay) with multiple layered fills apparently representing episodes of natural silting and deliberate backfilling or slumping. Both contained pottery of 12th-15th century date and one was cut by a small pit, also of medieval date. Two pits and a ditch of modern date were also identified. The nature of the large medieval features is not clear, as both extended beyond the limits of the trenches in which they were seen, but their visible edges were linear and the two features seemed to be aligned perpendicular to one another. The animal bone assemblage included the three main domesticates, butchery marks to sheep horn cores may be indicative of horn working on a small scale.
See report (S1) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised (S2).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2007.300).
J. Allen (NLA), 5 July 2007. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 5 May 2019.