NHER 64816 (Monument record) - Roman, post-medieval and undated features

February 2016. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of proposed development site.
This study concluded that there was potential for remains associated with multiple period of past activity. Cartographic evidence does though suggest that the site was only been used for agricultural purposes from at least the late post-medieval period onward.
No features or archaeological or historical significance we noted during a brief walkover survey.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 March 2021.

August 2016. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
Archaeologically-significant remains were present in all but one of the eleven trenches excavated, the vast majority of which were probable ditches. Although many of these features produced little or no dating evidence, the wide variety of alignments suggests that they were almost certainly associated with multiple phases of past activity.
A small assemblage of worked flints provides evidence for at least limited activity on or near the site during multiple prehistoric periods. The most notable pieces include a chopping tool/handaxe and core fragment of possible Palaeolithic date, Mesolithic/Early Neolithic flakes and blades and a potentially Bronze Age end scraper.
A reasonably large assemblage of Roman pottery was recovered from a roughly north-to-south aligned ditch and Roman sherds were also recovered from two of the numerous perpendicular east-to-west aligned ditches to the south. It is therefore likely that at least some of the similarly-aligned features were of the same date. A north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditch also produced more than 20 sherds of Roman pottery and Roman sherds were also recovered from a small pit. The various probable Roman features also produced fragments of animal bone and fired clay and samples taken from their fills were found to contain small assemblages of charred plant macrofossils likely to represent scattered domestic waste. The Roman pottery assemblage consists primarily of domestic greyware and lacks diagnostically later Roman material, suggesting activity had either ceased or significantly declined by the end of the 2nd century.
The other ditches included two features that could be confidently dated as post-medieval. The first of these was an east-north-east to west-south-west aligned feature in the southernmost part of the site that produced a single medieval pottery sherd and an assemblage of post-medieval brick and pantile fragments. The second was a similarly-aligned feature in the northern part of the site that corresponds with a former field boundary depicted on the Great Ellingham tithe map (S2). This ditch produced a range of finds including fragments of post-medieval/modern pottery and clay tobacco pipe, iron nails, animal bone and an oyster shell.
The remaining ditches are of uncertain date, but, on the basis of the finds recovered, presumably Roman, medieval or post-medieval.
See report (S3) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.228).
P. Watkins (HES), 28 March 2021. Amended 27 April 2024.