NHER 62792 (Monument record) - Undated ditches and pits, post-medieval quarries and World War Two bomb craters

November 2017. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of proposed development site.
This survey revealed considerable evidence for recent disturbance in the southern half of the site, much of which can be related to known features and/or events.
A large area of magnetic disturbance in the central part of the site represents an infilled quarry that is depicted as an open feature on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. Two large, strong dipolar responses immediately to the north would appear to correspond with two probable World War Two bomb craters that are visible on aerial photographs of the site taken in 1946 (NHER 42241). Much of the southern half of the site is also obscured by magnetic disturbance that almost certainly represents building rubble and other debris from the school buildings that previously stood here. Sub-rectangular areas of magnetic disturbance in the north-east corner of the site are indicative of structural remains associated with ferrous posts. The nature of these buildings is uncertain, particularly as they do not appear on any of the readily available maps of the site.
The amount of recent disturbance means that this survey had little chance of identifying features associated with the linear cropmarks previously identified in the southern half of the site (NHERs 43447 and 43461). It does however seem unlikely that these remains would have survived the construction and demolition of the school buildings. The only potentially archaeologically significant anomalies lay in the northern half of the site and were limited to two positive linear anomalies (one curvilinear) and a large discrete positive anomaly that probably represents another infilled quarry pit.
Information from draft report, final version awaited.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2023.98).
P. Watkins (HES), 7 June 2018. Amended 28 July 2023.

February-May 2018. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The 25 trenches excavated revealed relatively few archaeologically significant features, with the majority of those encountered likely to have been ditches. These ditches were present in the northernmost part of the site and around the margins of the southernmost part of the site. Datable finds were unfortunately limited to a fragment of Roman tegula and a single sherd of medieval pottery, both of which were recovered from features in the northernmost part of the site. Although the excavated ditches therefore remain undated the range of alignments suggests that they almost certainly represent more than one phase of land division. It is possible that at least some of the north-east to south-west and north-west to south-east aligned features were associated with the potentially Iron Age or Roman field cropmark field boundaries that have been recorded to the west.
Several undated possible pits were also identified, all of which had unremarkable sterile fills. Finds were limited to a single prehistoric flint flake.
A thick layer of modern rubble observed in a trench in the central part of the site is almost certainly material that had been dumped to fill a former quarry pit shown at this location on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. Two large probable quarry pits that were identified in two trenches to the east correspond with the large positive anomaly detected by the geophysical survey. No finds were recovered from these features but it was observed that their fills contained small fragments of ceramic building material including pieces of red brick.
As expected many of the trenches revealed evidence for modern disturbance that can be associated with the construction and demolition of the school buildings that had previously occupied the site.
Unstratified finds were limited to a small assemblage of post-medieval clay tobacco pipe fragments.
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2018.76).
P. Watkins (HES), 7 June 2018.