NHER 42573 (Find Spot record) - Neolithic to Bronze Age worked flint and Saxon to post medieval finds, London Road playing fields

October 2005. Watching Brief.
Examination of spoil from 129 post-holes excavated during construction of a new fence line. Contexts 1-129.
653 pottery sherds were collected from 99 individual post holes. The majority of these have been identified as Late Saxon, primarily Thetford ware but also St Neot's and Stamford ware, and these sherds appear to have been concentrated in the centre of the field, at the easternmost point of the fence. The Late Saxon pottery does not appear to be as abraded as the later finds and therefore may be derived from underlying features whereas the later material was likely deposited within the ploughsoil during agricultural activities. The range of pottery types and forms is typical of the assemblages from elsewhere in the Saxon town.
No concentrations were noted in the remainder of the material, which includes 42 sherds of early medieval, 26 sherds medieval and 6 sherds post medieval pottery, a silver half groat of Edward III, post medieval and modern ceramic building material, undated metalworking debris including at least one fragment of smithing slag, animal bone (some with clear butchering marks), and ten struck flints dated to the Neolithic to Bronze Age.
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 : 2011.234).
J. Allen (NLA) 1 March 2007. Updated H. Hamilton (NLA), 30 July 2008.