NHER 64342 (Monument record) - Medieval features and post-medieval ditches

August 2012. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
Archaeologically significant features were revealed in all but one of the thirteen trenches excavated, the majority of which are likely to have been of either medieval or post-medieval date.
Evidence for earlier activity on the site was largely limited to a small assemblage of prehistoric worked flints. This material includes a number of Early Neolithic blades and blade-like flakes (recovered from several features in a single trench at the eastern edge of the site) as well as several crude end scrapers of probable Middle-Late Bronze Age date.
The potentially medieval features included a range of ditches, pits and postholes. These were predominantly concentrated in the southernmost part of the site, close to Pluck Row, with the majority of the discrete features present within two trenches in the south-western corner of the field. In addition to pottery sherds, many of the pits produced varying amounts of what was probably food waste, including animal bones and a range of marine molluscs. One of the pits also produced a large amount of fired clay, although its source was unclear. The post-holes were fairly dispersed – none appeared to be part of any kind of readily identifiable structure. Ditches that were potentially associated with the medieval phase of activity included several north-east to south-west and north-west to south-east aligned features that were clearly unrelated to more recent field systems. Samples taken from the potentially medieval features produced plant macrofossils assemblages that were probably derived from domestic activities and routine crop processing. The medieval pottery assemblage suggests that these features were primarily associated with activity taking place between the 11th and 14th centuries. A significant number of Saxon-Norman and Early Medieval sherds are present and there is no evidence to suggest that any of the assemblage is later than 14th century in date.
There was little evidence for significant subsequent activity on the site. Three parallel north-to-south aligned ditches in the western part of the site are of probable late post-medieval date as one appears to correspond with a boundary marked on the late 19th-century 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. Post-medieval finds were also recovered from a roughly perpendicular ditch that crossed the central part of the site. The small assemblage of post-medieval finds includes pottery sherds, clay tobacco pipe fragments and several brick and roof tile fragments.
Undated features included a number of pits, the majority of which were unremarkable features that produced no finds. The one exception was a fairly large pit that was found to contain an articulated horse burial as well a single bone from a Brown Bear.
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2013.40).
P. Watkins (HES), 26 August 2020.