NHER 65277 (Monument record) - Post-medieval and undated features

November 2013. Desk-based Assessment.
Heritage Statement produced for proposed underground electrical cable connecting solar park at West Raynham Airfield to a grid connection west of Hempton.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 February 2022.

July-August 2014. Watching Brief and Strip Map and Sample Excavation.
Archaeological mitigation work undertaken during installation of underground electrical cable for West Raynham Solar Park.
No archaeologically-significant features or deposits were observed during the stripping of this section of the cable route easement.
At c.TF 8849 2583 the narrower trench excavated for the cable itself cut through the extant ha-ha within Raynham Park (NHER 2369), to the east of Raynham Hall (NHER 2368). This resulting section demonstrated that the ha-ha is originally 13.15m wide and 1.8m deep, which is considerably more substantial than its present form.
Features exposed within the area enclosed by the ha-ha were also probably associated with Raynham Hall. These included the remains of a north-west to south-east aligned brick wall with mortared flint foundations at c. TF 8837 2573 and a flint and clay surface to the south. An ashy spread adjacent to the latter contained several objects of 18th-/19th-century date, including pottery sherds, vessel glass and clay tobacco pipe fragments.
Two north-west to south-east aligned ditches were exposed in the parkland beyond the ha-ha, neither of which produced any dating evidence. A series of 17 similarly-aligned, parallel furrows observed to the north of these ditches were regarded as the remnants of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation.
No unstratified finds were recovered.
See report (S2) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2016.203).
P. Watkins (HES), 3 February 2022.