NHER 62630 (Monument record) - Medieval and later structural remains

June-September 2014. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of new housing development.
Initial groundworks were not deep enough to expose archaeologically significant deposits. The deposits exposed consisted primarily of demolition debris and a hard-core levelling layer; much of which was presumably lain down during the early 1970s when several buildings along this section of Queen Street were demolished to make way for a car park.
No obstacles that required clearing were struck whilst piling operations were being monitoring. The pile arisings suggested that the underlying deposits consisted of a cream-coloured silt overlying a grey clayey silt and a layer of peat.
Structural remains and deposits of greater interest were however exposed during the excavation of ring-beam trenches and several exploratory pits (the latter opened in order to locate an electrical cable that was accidentally severed by a pile). Of particular interest were two walls that were both composed of coursed, undressed sandstone blocks. These walls appeared to be later than a gravel layer that possibly represented an earlier road surface associated with Queen Street. It is likely that these walls were medieval, particularly as the overlying demolition rubble at the location contained medieval peg tile fragments and mortar but no later material. Ring beams at the eastern edge of the site exposed another wall of identical construction. This north-to-south aligned wall had a eastwards return at its southern end. It is suggested that these walls represented the front and rear boundaries of medieval properties fronting onto Queen Street, the positions of which had been fossilised in the arrangement of later structures. This is supported by the fact that similar evidence was recorded immediately to the north during the demolition of a 19th-century cottage in 1960 (NHER 1226). The remains of a late medieval building were observed, the walls of which line up with those observed during the work at this site. The walls of this building had also come to be incorporated within later structures.
Other remains exposed by the ring-beam trenches included a north-to-south aligned clunch wall that probably represented an internal building division and two low 19th- to early 20th-century brick arches at the southern edge of the site. Masonry was also exposed at the eastern edge of the site although it was unclear whether this represented an in situ wall fragment or an element of the surrounding building rubble deposit. Its fabric incorporated fragments of medieval roof tile.
Finds retained for analysis included a fragment of medieval or medieval/post-medieval pottery, several medieval roof tiles and a single post-medieval brick.
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.262).
P. Watkins (HES), 1 April 2018. Amended 19 May 2019.