NHER 64831 (Monument record) - Post-medieval and undated drainage features

August-October 2014. Strip Map and Sample Excavation.
Excavation on route of southern Postwick Overflow and Distribution Main pipeline.
Two narrow sections of the pipeline easement were investigated; one adjacent to the River Yare (Area 1a) and a longer area immediately to the north, on the opposite side of an extant drainage channel (Area 1b).
Several ditches were exposed, all but one in the northern excavation area. Although the majority produced little in the way of dating evidence, two appear to correspond with features depicted on 19th-century maps. The first is a north-east to south-west aligned ditch in the northern excavation area that corresponds with a former drainage channel shown on the Postwick tithe map of 1838 (S1). This produced a single sherd of medieval/post-medieval pottery and a fragment of animal bones (the only finds recovered at this site). The second is a north-north-west to south-south-east ditch in the southern area that coincides with a drainage feature depicted for the first time on the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six-inch map (S2). Several of the other ditches were parallel or perpendicular to these and other 19th-century and extant drainage channels and therefore also probably post-medieval in date.
Samples taken from the fills of several of the excavated features produced assemblages of waterlogged plant remains, including some that were probably from plant growing within the water-filled features themselves.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 2 April 2021.