NHER 64656 (Monument record) - Potentially medieval ditches and post-medieval pond

January 2020. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of site of proposed residential development.
Seven trenches were opened, all of which revealed at least one potentially archaeologically-significant feature. Unfortunately flooding prevented excavation of the remains in several of the trenches, which could only be recorded in plan.
Ditches were present in six of the trenches. These were all aligned roughly east-to-west or north-to-south and were therefore regarded as probably associated with the same system of land division. One of the three ditches that could be excavated produced several sherds of medieval pottery but the other two were undated. A single sherd of medieval pottery was also recovered from a shallow, north-west to south-east aligned linear feature in the north-west corner of the site.
The medieval pottery recovered includes several early medieval sherds that are similar to material recovered from spreads of pottery waste elsewhere in Fransham parish that are thought to represent evidence for pottery manufacture.
Unfortunately the flooding prevented the investigation of two large features identified in the northern half of the site. One was though probably the margin of a large pond that can be seen at this location on the Ordnance Survey Six-inch First Edition map (S1). The other feature lay closer to Crown Lane and was of a more uncertain nature, particularly as only its southern edge was exposed. It is tentatively suggested that it could have been part of a common edge boundary ditch, possibly continuing the line of feature recorded approximately 600m to the west (see NHER 64657). The postulated line of this common edge boundary ditch is based on the results of fieldwalking and documentary research - see (S2) for further information.
Although the trenches and their associated spoil were subject to metal detecting no metal finds were recovered.
See report (S3) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2020.21).
P. Watkins (HES), 25 February 2021. Amended 8 December 2022.