NHER 50402 (Monument record) - Medieval and post-medieval to modern remains

Before July 2003. Excavations in yard to west of Austin House (previously recorded under NHER 39588).
Traces of building foundations reported by [1] as medieval with 18th century pottery above. However, the author of (S1) saw only late 19th century red brick and stable pavers during a site visit to Austin House (NHER 39588) in July 2003.
See (S1) for further information.
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 11 July 2019.

June-July 2007. Trial Trenching.
Excavation of two trenches within the footprints of proposed new buildings.
A trench excavated to the west of 15 Austin Street revealed a deep sequence of deposits, with the uppermost undisturbed natural deposit a dark green-grey sandy silt that was present at a depth of 1.8m. Several brown sandy silt layers lay between this natural deposit and the subsoil layer, the earliest of which produced single sherds of medieval and early post-medieval pottery. Post-medieval and post-medieval/modern pottery sherds and ceramic building material was recovered from the overlying deposits. Three features were cut into these deposits, a large medieval/post-medieval pit and two undated post-holes. A north-to-south aligned flint and brick wall was also exposed at one edge of the trench. The exact date of this wall was uncertain, although it was above the subsoil layer and though to be probably modern.
The trench excavated to the north of 15 Austin Street also revealed a deep sequence of deposits, being excavated to a depth of 1.14m without undisturbed natural deposits being reached. Two perpendicular walls were observed in this trench, one aligned roughly north-to-south and the other east-to-west. Although the relationship between the two walls was not clear they were observed to have similar fabrics that comprised flint, brick and shaped limestone. These walls were also undated although they were believed to be earlier than the wall exposed in the first trench. Cartographic sources suggest that this section of the Pilot Street frontage had been built up since at least the late 17th century, with two buildings shown at this location on the late 19th-century Ordnance Survey 1:500 Town Plan map (both of which were demolished at some point during the 20th century).
No other the features were observed in this trench, with the absence of both grave cuts and human remains confirming that the churchyard associated with nearby St Nicholas Chapel (NHER 5549) never extended this far south.
The finds recovered during this work were predominantly of post-medieval date, with earlier material limited to a small number of medieval and medieval/post-medieval pottery sherds.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 13 April 2018.