NHER 64677 (Monument record) - Late Saxon to medieval features and multi-period finds

July-August 2020. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
All three of the trenches excavated revealed archaeologically-significant remains, which included a number of pits, several probable ditches and a cobbled surface.
The small pottery assemblage recovered suggests that the bulk of these remains were associated with a Late Saxon to early medieval phase of activity. Features that could be reasonably convincingly date to this period included a post-hole that produced pottery of probable Late Saxon date and a pit and a possible ditch terminus that both produced early medieval sherds. Earlier material was limited to a single Early Neolithic flint blade, several sherds of undiagnostic Late Prehistoric pottery and a single Roman sherd; all of which were recovered from contexts that also produced later finds. Later medieval and post-medieval finds were similarly scarce and apart from a single sherd of medieval/post-medieval pottery, all recovered from subsoil deposits. It is therefore reasonably likely that at least some of the more poorly dated remains were associated with medieval activity, including the cobbled surface. This north-north-east to south-south-west aligned linear band of unbonded cobbles lay adjacent to a similarly-aligned (and presumably contemporary) ditch which produced a single sherd of early medieval pottery, fragments of lava quern and a piece of fired clay (possibly from an oven dome).
Samples from features of probable early medieval date were found to contain remains likely to represent scatters of domestic debris, including carbonised grains. Interestingly, the largest assemblage of carbonised grain came from the linear feature adjacent to the cobbled surface. Hulled barley and oat dominated, with smaller quantities of free-threshing wheat and rye also present – all typical for the medieval period.
This work revealed no direct evidence for All Saints’ Church, which is believed to have stood somewhere to the south of Beach Road prior to its demolishion in the mid 16th century. It is tentatively suggested that the cobbled surface could be related to the church in some way, although it should be noted that the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six-inch map (S1) places its possible location more than 100m to the east of this site (NHER 8670).
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 18 March 2021.