NHER 62560 (Monument record) - Late Saxon, post-medieval and undated features

May 2017. Excavation.
Excavation of site of new swimming pool.
This work revealed evidence for three broad phases of activity on the site, although the majority of the excavated remains were likely to date to the Late Saxon period.
The only features thought to potentially predate the Late Saxon phase of activity were two north-to-south aligned ditches that probably represented a single, interrupted, slightly curvilinear boundary. A small number of animal bone fragments were the only finds recovered from these ditches.
The features of probable Late Saxon date all produced sherds of Thetford-type ware pottery and included several ditches, three pits and a single post-hole. The three ditches were all aligned roughly east-to-west and each produced only a single sherd of pottery. Other finds included a small amount of animal bone and a single lava quern fragment. Samples taken from the two adjacent, parallel ditches in the northernmost part of the site produced small amounts of charred cereal grains, including wheat, barley rye and oat. Three large sub-ovoid discrete features that lay between the ditches were interpreted as probable rubbish pits. These features produced small amounts of pottery, along with fragments of fuel ash slag and iron slag, animal bones and a copper alloy hooked tag. Samples taken from the pits produced small assemblages of charred cereal grain similar to those present within the nearby ditches. A single steep-sided post-hole was also identified in this part of the site. The limited number of finds recovered during this work suggest that the site was probably set back from the main settlement focus. The Late Saxon pottery assemblage mostly comprises finer wares of the type made in Thetford itself, although several sherds are more typical of the pottery made at rural production sites.
Later features included the remains of a north-to-south aligned wall foundation with a chalk rubble core and faced with unworked chalk cobbles. This wall appears to have been at least 16m long and had been completely demolished along much of its length, with only a linear robber trench surviving. Cartographic evidence suggests that it was demolished in the latter half of the 19th century, the wall corresponding with the eastern side of a building shown on the 1842 Thornham Tithe map but absent on the subsequently produced 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. The remains of the wall were sealed by an extensive spread of demolition debris that contained brick of 15th- to 17th century date. A particularly dense patch of debris to the east of the wall contained a number of pantiles, which, if associated with this building, suggest that it probably dated to the 17th century or later.
A ditch running parallel to the wall produced no dating evidence but was potentially broadly contemporary, cutting one of the earlier ditches and lying beneath the spreads of demolition debris.
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.393).
P. Watkins (HES), 8 February 2018. Amended 20 June 2020.