NHER 62774 (Monument record) - Roman and medieval features

June 2015. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer and resistivity survey of proposed development site.
This survey identified three very strong bipolar linear features believed to represent walls. One was observed to have been caused by what was described as a "superficially buried concrete wall foundation". An examination of the available cartographic evidence does however suggest that this feature was almost certainly the remains of a driveway that led to Abbey Farm until relatively recently. An area of very strong bipolar disturbance in the middle of the survey area corresponds with a pond shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. Several quite diffuse, roughly north-north-east to south-south-west aligned positive linear anomalies were also identified in the western half of the site. These were tentatively identified as possibly representing surviving ridge and furrow.
It is noted that the survey area was covered with modern demolition rubble which hampered the identification of further features.
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.482).
P. Watkins (HES), 21 February 2018.

January 2018. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The five trenches excavated in the western half of the site exposed a number of archaeologically significant features, the majority of which were ditches.
Evidence for prehistoric activity was limited to a small abraded assemblage of worked flints comprising a crude Bronze Age scraper and two undiagnostic flakes. The earliest feature excavated was a shallow irregular hollow that produced over 100 sherds of Roman pottery. This assemblage contains imported fine wares that suggest it was deposited in the mid to late 1st century AD. Other evidence for Roman activity on or near the site was however limited to a single fragment of tegula roof tile recovered from what was probably a later feature.
Although many of the other excavated features produced little or no dating evidence the pottery recovered suggests that most were probably associated with a medieval phase of activity. The bulk of the medieval pottery was recovered from ditches in a trench at the western edge of the site which exposed a notable cluster of features, including curvi-linear ditches and several possible pits. One of the more substantial ditches produced over 1kg of pottery. Samples taken from this feature and one of the potentially medieval pits in the same trench produced a range of cereal grains with the taxa present all common in the medieval arable economy. The ditches elsewhere included a number of north-to-south aligned features in the northern half of the site and several features aligned roughly east-to-west to the south. Although these and some additional, scattered possible pits produced either no finds or only small amounts of medieval pottery the lack of any later material suggests most were probably medieval. Also potentially of medieval date was a partially exposed clay-lined feature interpreted as a kiln or oven. This feature had a black, charcoal-rich primary fill and a sample taking from the overlying material produced a large assemblage of carbonised cereal grains (predominantly wheat), suggesting it had probably been used for drying cereals.
No potentially structural remains were identified, with none of the linear anomalies identified by the geophysical survey proving to be walls. As noted above the concrete feature described as a modern wall is almost certainly the remains of an access track or driveway that previously crossed this part of the site.
The medieval pottery assemblage was almost all derived from the nearby production centre at Grimston and indicates that the excavated features were primarily associated with 11th- to 13th-century activity, with no sherds of definite later date recovered. There was also a notable absence of post-medieval material. Other medieval finds were limited to a single roof tile and a piece of moulded architectural stonework, the latter almost certainly derived from the nearby Augustinian Priory (NHER 2319).
See report (S2) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2019.94).
P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2018. Amended 10 August 2019.