NHER 63100 (Monument record) - Multi-period remains including Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pits, Roman ditches and Middle-Late Saxon charcoal pits

October 2010-April 2011. Trial Trenching.
Excavation of trench at proposed site for directional drilling pit on route of Earlham Grid to Norwich Main Underground Diversion cable (Trench 4).
This trench revealed three linear features and two possible pits, none of which produced any dating evidence.
A subsoil deposit was present.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 20 March 2021.

March-September 2012. Watching Brief.
Examination of easement stripped during installation of underground electricity cable along western edge of field (Area 1).
No archaeologically-significant features were observed.
It should though be noted that conditions were far from ideal, as the easement was not stripped under archaeological supervision. It does though appear that the excavation of the cable trench itself may have been monitored at this location.
A single unstratified sherd of post-medieval was recovered in this field.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 9 August 2021.

March 2013. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of large proposed development area.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 19 November 2018.

March 2013. Geophysical Survey.
Detailed magnetometer survey of proposed development area (Sectors 8 and 9).
The only features of possible archaeological origin are several weak linear anomalies located in the centre of the surveyed area that appear to broadly correspond to cropmarks of two concentric curvilinear ditches identified in 1994 and 2010 (NHER 36138). However, it had been previously stated that these cropmarks could be geological in origin and the magnetic trends have been described as vague with equal possibility of a geological or archaeological origin.
No evidence of the possible cropmark ring ditch within this field was identified (also recorded under NHER 36138). However, magnetic responses in this area may have been masked by the presence of an electricity pylon in the immediate vicinity and underlying geological variation noted throughout the survey area.
A small number of weak parallel linear trends within the data are believed to have been caused by modern agricultural activity.
For other sites related to this survey see NHER 40130, NHER 40132, NHER 40133, NHER 40135, NHER 40140, and NHER 60815.
See reports (S4) and (S5) for further information.
Previously recorded under NHER 36138.
H. Hamilton (HES), 30 March 2015. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 19 November 2018.

September 2013. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The four trenches excavated revealed limited evidence for prehistoric and Roman activity at this location, although the majority of the features uncovered are of uncertain date.
Prehistoric activity on the site was evidenced by a small assemblage of worked flints of predominantly Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age character, although most were probably residual in later features. A small pit that produced a single sherd of possible Middle/Late Bronze Age pottery was the only feature for which a prehistoric date could be tentatively suggested.
Potentially Roman features included two adjacent pits, both of which produced two sherds of Roman pottery. One of these pits also contained handmade sherds of probable Middle to Late Iron Age date.
A number of ditches were also identified, several of which possibly corresponded with previously identified geophysical anomalies. These features were mostly aligned roughly east-to-west or north-to-south and are all undated - the only find recovered from their fills being a single scrap of possible post-medieval ceramic building material. Several other small possible pits were also impossible to date.
Unfortunately the trench that was to investigate the cropmark ring-ditch recorded in the south-east corner of the field (NHER 36138) had to be moved away from its intended position due to the presence of an overhead power line. The repositioned trench exposed a large feature interpreted as a substantial north-west to south-east aligned ditch, although its base was not reached and its nature therefore remains somewhat uncertain. It lay approximately 25m to the north-east of the mapped cropmarks so much be regarded as unrelated. Finds were limited to a small assemblage of prehistoric worked flints, a single Roman pottery sherd and several fragments of lava quern, all of which were recovered from one of the feature's uppermost fills.
See report (S6) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.207).
P. Watkins (HES), 19 November 2018. Amended 19 May 2019.

September-October 2018. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of part of large proposed development area (Fields 5 and 6; Trenches 122-197).
The 76 trenches excavated at this location revealed a low-density scatter of linear and discrete features. Although most produced little or no dating evidence it is clear from the finds recovered that these remains were associated with multiple phases of past activity.
A number of features were of possible Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date, including two pits at the northern end of the western field that both contained large quantities of burnt flint. One produced more than 20 sherds of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pottery (including possible fragments of Beaker or Grooved Ware) and the other a single, large sherd of Grooved Ware. A pit at the eastern end of the site that produced another large assemblage of burnt flint and stone was potentially of a similar date, although this feature produced no pottery (just a small assemblage of worked flints of probable Neolithic/Bronze Age date). Other potentially Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age features included a pit in the eastern field that contained a small amount of Grooved Ware pottery and a pit and an adjacent ditch in the western field that both produced several Beaker sherds.
Although the prehistoric pottery assemblage includes a number of probable Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age sherds there were no features that could be convincingly associated with this phase of activity (this material being present in only very small quantities and/or within features that also produced later finds).
In contrast to the sites to the north a notable proportion of the prehistoric pottery assemblage appears to date to the later Iron Age. Although no features could be firmly dated to this period it is notable that the bulk of the later Iron Age pottery was recovered from the northern half of the eastern field and it is possible that a number of ditches and at least one pit in this part of the site were associated with this phase of activity.
A small assemblage of Roman pottery was also recovered, virtually all of which came from ditches. The features that could be most convincingly dated to this period were a group of north-to-south and east-to-west aligned ditches at the western end of the site and a number of similarly-aligned features to the east, in the northern half of the eastern field (where they were close to the features most likely to be of Iron Age date.
The remaining ditches were mostly of uncertain date, although it is clear from the variety of alignments that they were probably associated with multiple phases of past activity. Those likely to be of more recent date included a group of intercut north-east to south-west aligned feature that potentially coincided with a geophysical anomaly, one of which produced a large fragment of post-medieval pottery. A north-north-west to south-south-east aligned ditch at the eastern end of the site produced modern pottery (not retained) and corresponds with a former field boundary depicted on the Cringleford tithe map (S7) and extant until relatively recently.
The undated discrete features included a number of widely-dispersed sub-circular, shallow pits with bowl-shaped profiles, charcoal-rich fills and sporadically heat-reddened margins. These are very similar to features seen elsewhere that are now regarded as potentially associated with post-Roman charcoal production. Samples taken from these features produced nothing apart from frequent charcoal fragments (much identifiable as oak), which is consistent with this interpretation.
Although two of the trenches had been positioned to target a possible cropmark ring-ditch recorded at TG 1910 0498 (NHER 36138) neither revealed under evidence for associated sub-surface remains. There was also no correspondence between the excavated remains and the curvilinear cropmarks mapped to the north (also recorded under NHER 36138). This would indicate that the latter at least were probably geological in origin; which had been suggested as a possibility when they were first mapped.
See report (S8) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 13 August 2021.

February 2019. Excavation.
This final phase of work saw the excavation of a small area at the northern end of the western field (Area 4). This was centred on one of the undated 'fire pits' but it is unclear why this undated feature (which was no different to the other pits of this type) was selected for further investigation [1].
The only other feature exposed was a small shallow pit. This contained no finds and a sample from its charcoal-flecked fill produced burnt flints but nothing else of interest.
Unstatified finds recovered included a small assemblage of prehistoric worked flints, single sherds of medieval and post-medieval pottery and several post-medieval metal objects.

A programme of radiocarbon dating undertaken following the final phase of excavation saw a sample of charcoal from one of the 'fire pits' at this site submitted for analysis. This produced a Middle-Late Saxon date of 777-983 cal BC at 95% probability (SUERC-88497; 1138 +/- 30). These features were therefore clearly related to the identical pits revealed at sites to the north-west and north (NHERs 65245 and 40940), a number of which also produced Middle to Late Saxon and Late Saxon radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon dating has also demonstrated that similar features uncovered around the same time at another site further to the north were probably also of a broadly similar age, although the combined date range for these is slightly wider (see NHER 60815). It is therefore highly likely that the pits at these various sites were associated with the same charcoal industry, with the main phase of activity most likely occurring during the Middle-Late Saxon period.
See report (S9) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 13 August 2021.

A combined archive comprising material from the 2018 and 2019 phases of work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2018.243).
P. Watkins (HES), 12 July 2023.