NHER 64663 (Monument record) - Post-medieval structural remains and medieval pottery

January 2017. Watching Brief
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of extension to residential dwelling.
A series of deep footing trenches demonstrated that the natural chalk was overlain by riverine deposits of wet sand and silty sand. The material exposed in the eastern part of the site was observed to contain fragments of post-medieval late brick. A subsoil layer visible to the west produced a single sherd of medieval pottery.
These various deposits were sealed by a make-up deposit that contained fragments of late brick, modern glass, pamment tiles and late 19th/20th century pantile fragments. Much of this material is likely to represent debris that was scattered during the demolition of a structure that had stood on the site until the construction of the extant bungalow in around 1980. This building was of early 19th-centuty or earlier date, being depicted on the Narborough tithe map of 1837 (S1). Substantial surviving footings associated with the eastern wall of this building were shown to survive to the depth of c.0.9m. The lower part of these footings was constructed primarily of chalk rubble with some late brick and flint rubble, while the upper part consisted of several courses of recycled yellow and red brick.
The small assemblage of late post-medieval/modern finds retained included a single pottery sherd, a clay tobacco pipe stem, a lead toy stag and a ridge tile.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 10 March 2021.