NHER 54864 (Find Spot record) - Medieval/post-medieval and post-medieval to modern finds

July 2010. Test Pit.
Excavation of single test pit by local school children as part of the Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA) programme run by Access Cambridge Archaeology.
This test pit (ACL/10/05) was located at [1] and did not reach natural geological deposits – excavation having to be halted at a depth of 0.65m due to the presence of a gas pipe and a large amount of rubble. Finds recovered included:
4 late medieval/early post-medieval pottery sherds.
22 post-medieval pottery sherds and 4 clay tobacco pipe stem fragments.
57 late post-medieval/modern pottery sherds.
This test pit also produced a range of other finds that were not subject to specialist examination, the majority of which are either of probable late post-medieval to modern date or inherently undatable. These additional objects include 12 curved tile fragments, 5 flat tile fragments, 2 black-glazed tile fragments, 1 brick fragment, 69 unidentified ceramic building material fragments, various pieces of bottle, container and probable window glass, a metal disc, a square metal plate, a flat strip of metal, a fragment of metal tubing, a piece of metal wire, 18 iron nails, 14 corroded iron scraps, 12 corroded iron lumps, 4 pieces of possible iron slag and 4 oyster shells.
For further details, including a wider discussion of the results of the HEFA test pitting surveys undertaken in Acle between 2009 and 2014 see report (S1), which incorporates information from pottery report (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 11 May 2026.