NHER 65081 (Monument record) - Roman ditches and possible pits

June 2015. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The three trenches excavated revealed several linear features of uncertain nature. They also demonstrated that the site’s previous use as a yard associated with Snettisham station had resulted in a significant degree of disturbance, with the natural sands being overlain by deposits that contained fragments of modern brick and concrete, which were in turn sealed by a spread of demolition debris. Two large pits containing modern rubble were also recorded.
The only features that were initially regarded as potentially of archaeological interest were two shallow north-east to south-west aligned linear features. These were undated but seen as potentially the traces of medieval or early post-medieval ridge and furrow cultivation.
Two similarly-aligned ditches were regarded as much more recent features due to the presence of modern brick and tile in their fills. It was though subsequently suggested that this material was possibly intrusive, the positions and alignments of these ditches indicating they were potentially associated with cropmarks recorded immediately to the south (NHER 26626). These cropmarks are part of an extensive group of rectilinear features thought to represent an area of Late Iron Age to Roman settlement.
No finds were recovered during this phase of work.
Information from draft report. Final version awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 14 June 2021.

June-July 2016. Trial Trenching and Watching Brief.
Due to the ambiguous results of the initial evaluation an additional trench was excavated prior to the site being redeveloped. Although there was again evidence for considerably recent disturbance a range of features were identified that clearly predated the site’s use as a railway yard. As a result a watching brief was maintained during the subsequent excavation of footing trenches for several new dwellings and an associated covered parking area.
The remains exposed were mostly of probable Roman date, including several ditches and a least one possible pit. The ditches appeared to be aligned either north-west to south-east or north-east to south-west, suggesting these features were almost certainly related to similarly-aligned cropmarks in the surrounding fields that are thought to represent an extensive area of Iron Age to Roman settlement (NHERs 18236 and 26626). A north-west to south-east aligned ditch was particularly noteworthy as it produced 80 sherds of Roman pottery and was almost certainly the continuation of a feature associated with one of cropmark mapped to the north (part of the group recorded as NHER 18236). The main fill of this feature contained dumped burnt material, along with a range of other waste including animal bone fragments and oysters shells. Fragments of iron smelting slag and ironstone were also recovered and a sample taken from the fill of the ditch was found to contain a moderate quantity of heavy ferrous particles that may also represent metal working debris. The other excavated features produced smaller quantities of Roman pottery, along with additional fragments of animal bone, iron slag and ironstone.
The small assemblage of Roman pottery recovered appears to date primarily to the early Roman period (1st to 2nd century) and includes some material that is almost certainly late 1st century (and potentially indicative of activity that went beyond that which would be typically associated with a rural site). Other Roman finds of note included a single brick fragment and part of a steelyard.
There was little evidence for subsequent activity on the site prior to the 19th century and the only evidence for earlier activity was two residual Palaeolithic worked flints.
All of the archaeologically-significant features were sealed by a deposit that was probably the topsoil at the time the railway yard was constructed in the 1860s. The site appears to have been levelled at this time and a substantial linear cut at the southern edge of the site was also probably associated with this phase of activity. A number of steep-sided features were similar to the modern features recorded during the initial trial trenching and presumably represented disturbance associated with the decommissioning and removal of railway structures.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 19 June 2021.