NHER 50584 (Monument record) - Medieval clay floor, medieval and post medieval sand extraction pits and post-medieval horticultural remains

1997. Desk-based Assessment.
Impact assessment for proposed development.
See report (S1) for further details.
Previously recorded under NHER 170.
P. Watkins (HES), 13 August 2015.

1998. Desk-based Assessment.
A further desktop study confirms a likely early gateway in the Late Saxon defences, where Botolph Street enters, for traffic from the north-west. The area on the north-east side of Botolph was open for some centuries; the town ditch seems to have survived as a recognisable landmark, although mostly infilled and converted into a lane, to be recorded in the medieval Enrolled Deeds. A small area on Magdalen Street may have lain at the south end of a former market area, overlooked by St Botolph's church, and now completely lost through infilling and the modern loss of Botolph Street.
See report (S2) for further details. The results of this assessment are also summarised in (S3).
Previously recorded under NHER 170.
D. Holburn (HES), 5 December 2011. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 13 August 2015.

March 2007. Desk-based Assessment.
The site is located within the Late Saxon town and the medieval city walls, and therefore the potential for archaeological finds and features is significant. The northern gate of the Late Saxon town may have been located within the development area. During the medieval period the nature of the area was predominantly industrial, including iron-working.
See report (S4) for further details
H. White (NLA), 2 June 2009.

September-November 2007. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of area to be affected by proposed redevelopment of Anglia Square (Area 4; Trenches 1-5).
Trench 1:
This area contained post-medieval horticultural remains. The earliest features identified were a series of east-west aligned furrows which were cut into sands on the north side of the trench. Two small pits, perhaps resulting from the planting of shrubs or trees, appear to be contemporary with these furrows. Later in the post-medieval period a deep, flat-bottomed pit was cut into the surface of the garden soil deposit and the fill of the pit largely comprised mortar and fragmented ceramic building material.
Trench 2:
This area may have been used for the extraction of sand, as suggested by two pits cut into the undisturbed sands. Both pits were truncated by later rubbish pits which contained pottery dating from the 15th to 17th centuries. Above these pits was a thick layer of garden soil. The later phase in this area of the site comprised a Victorian cellar and associated structures. The relative depth of the floor and the vaulted ceiling of the cellar suggest a specialist industrial or commercial function; in general terms it is reminiscent of an ice house or cold store.
Trench 3:
The earliest features were two intercutting pits, possibly dug for the extraction of sand but later filled with domestic waste. The contents of these pits dated from the 15th to the 17th centuries. These pits were clipped by another quarry pit. All three were sealed by silt and garden soils, suggesting that this area was used as a yard or garden in the later post medieval period.
Trench 4:
Several pits, probably dug for extraction, were recorded in this area, and were found to contain pottery dating from the 11th to 14th centuries. Possibly contemporary with the latest of these pits was a fragmentary banded clay floor surface, the upper surface of which was burnt, indicating the presence of a hearth. As no contemporary walls or features were recorded adjacent to the hearth, it may have been a central fireplace within a domestic building which fronted onto St George's Street, but no evidence of such a building was recorded. Later remains in this area included an irregularly shaped ditch which contained 15th to 16th century pottery. A substantial and probably contemporary east-west flint and mortar wall was recorded, and the southern face of this wall bore evidence of plaster, suggesting that this face of the wall was within the interior of a building. Alterations to this building are indicated by a thin north-south wall of flint and brick, probably an internal subdivision of the building, and a mortar pad which is probably the remains of a stair base. In the later post-medieval period, a well was excavated in this area.
Trench 5: The earliest recorded evidence in this area was a buried topsoil which contained 10th and 11th century pottery. This layer was cut by a well which was constructed in the 13th century. Three post-holes nearby probably represent a structure associated with the well. An east-west fragment of wall was also recorded and probably belonged to a late medieval building, the greater part of which lay in the area outside the trench to the north. The well appears to have been infilled in the 15th to 16th centuries. Several pits were dug in this area in the post medieval period, and the area appears to have been cultivated from the 17th or 18th centuries until sometime in the 20th century.
See report (S5) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S6).
See NHERs 50581-50583 and 50586 for information on Trenches 6-9 and 12-13.
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.235).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 17 September 2008. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 16 May 2019.