NHER 64834 (Monument record) - Late post-medieval structural remains and medieval to post-medieval ditches

August-October 2014. Strip Map and Sample Excavation.
Excavation on route of Postwick Overflow and Distribution Main pipeline (Area 3b).
This work uncovered the remains of a brick-built cellar associated with a building shown on the Little Plumstead tithe map (S1) at TG 2971 1080 (which is clearly marked as an occupied dwelling). This square structure was 1.2m wide and had a red brick floor, walls of red brick and flint and a set of red brick access steps on its southern side. A drain in the floor ran out of the northern wall of the cellar, where it connected to a brick-built external drain. This drain ran into a well with a lining of flint nodules and occasional brick fragments. It is therefore appears that an existing well was reused as a soakaway when the brick cellar was constructed. A range of finds were recovered from the excavated portion of the well, including a single Roman pottery sherd, a range of late medieval to post-medieval pottery, post-medieval brick and tile fragments, animal bone and a worked bone handle. The pottery assemblage suggests the last material was deposited between the late 18th century and the early 19th century. This is a similar to the likely age of the brick cellar – which incorporates bricks of probable 18th- to mid-19th-century date. The bricks forming the external drain are of a slightly earlier, late 17th- to 18th-century date suggesting that had been recycled from an earlier structure elsewhere. There was no evidence for surviving remains associated with a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of farm buildings shown on (S1) immediately to the south of the dwelling. These had already been demolished by the time the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six-inch map (S2) was published in the late 19th century.
There was little evidence for significant earlier activity at this location, although the single pit recorded at this location contained a single sherd of abraded Late Saxon pottery and two recut east-north-east to west-south-west aligned ditches were potentially medieval in date. A similarly-aligned ditch adjacent to one of these features produced late post-medieval finds and clearly corresponds with one of several plot boundaries shown on (S1). A perpendicular ditch that appeared to truncated this feature was therefore also of relatively recent date.
There was no trace of surviving sub-surface remains associated with a pair of north-east to south-west aligned linear cropmarks recorded at this location (part of an extensive group of enclosure and field boundaries of probable medieval to post-medieval date recorded as NHER 45126).
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 11 October 2024.