NHER 65436 (Monument record) - Undated inhumation burials and other, prehistoric, Roman, post-medieval and undated remains

August-September 2015. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of part of large proposed development area (Trenches 29-32).
The four trenches excavated revealed a number of features, the most significant of which were two adjacent graves exposed in the north-west corner of the site. Excavation of the exposed portions of these features revealed the lower extremities of two extended, east-to-west aligned inhumation burials. No grave good or other finds were recovered and the remains themselves were left in situ (apart from a single metatarsal fragment recovered from a sample taken from one of the graves). Two features exposed immediately to the east were probably also graves, being similarly orientated and in line with the confirmed burials. The investigation of one of these additional features revealed no human remains, although it should be noted that only a small portion of one end could be excavated. The apparently regular arrangement of these features suggests that they may well represent part of an organised cemetery. Its date remains uncertain, although the position of the burials and the apparent lack of any known historical context suggests that they are most likely Roman or Saxon.
Other features recorded included several pits and two ditches. One of these pits produced a reasonable number of animal bones (including the remains of cattle, pig, sheep and deer). This is thought to have been of relatively recent date as it was observed to cut the subsoil layer, although this seems unlikely as it also produced a fragment of rib bone that had finely sawn teeth along one edge and therefore may have been part of a composite comb.
The other possible pits and post-holes recorded were all also undated, although it is noted that two at the southern end of the site both contained small fragments of ceramic building material. Two features to the north contained small quantities of burnt flint.
A north-to-south aligned ditch at the eastern edge of the site corresponds with a former field boundary that appears on the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six Inch map (S1), but not the earlier tithe map of 1838 (S2). A roughly perpendicular east-north-east to west-south-west aligned ditch to the south doesn’t correspond with anything on either map, although its alignment is very similar to that of a former boundary shown on the tithe map, a little way to the south.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 1 March 2022.

February-March 2022. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of proposed development area (Fields 1 and 2).
Two straight linear anomalies correspond with former field boundaries depicted on the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six-inch map (S1), while large dipolar anomalies at TM 05286 94357 and TM 0537 794012 coincide with ponds shown on this map. Two other straight linear anomalies represent modern services.
The only responses of potential archaeological interest are several curvilinear anomalies at the northern end of the site. The nature of these is though far from certain.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 October 2024.

March-July 2023. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development area (Trenches 141-145, 161-166 and 181-236).
A total of 67 trenches were excavated at this location, including one larger rectangular area opened up around the site of the burials partially uncovered (but not lifted) in 2015. These trenches revealed numerous pits and postholes and various ditches. The majority of the discrete features produced little or no dating evidence but are likely to have been associated with various phases of prehistoric and Roman period activity. The site appears to have seen little subsequent activity, although the majority of the ditches uncovered were probably post-medieval in date.
As in the fields to the south the small assemblage of prehistoric worked flints recovered provides evidence for multiple phases of activity, comprising pieces of Mesolithic/Early Neolithic, Neolithic or later, Neolithic/Bronze Age and Bronze Age/Iron Age date. The quantities recovered from individual features were though small and it is likely that much of this material was residual within later contexts. The assemblage of prehistoric pottery recovered does though provide further evidence for prehistoric activity, with multiple periods represented. Small amounts of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pottery were recovered from several features, with the most notable being a pit that contained several fineware Beaker sherds. Pottery sherds that were probably of a similar age were recovered from several other pits and post-holes, including two that lay within the same cluster of otherwise undated features. A single sherd of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pottery was also recovered from an outlying pit at the northern edge of the site that contained a significant quantity of burnt flint.
A number of scattered pits and post-holes were also found to contain Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery, including two features in another diffuse group of pits and post-holes.
Several pits produced pottery of probable Middle Iron Age date. Significantly, only one of these features contained Roman pottery – suggesting this may well have been a focus for pre-Conquest activity. These potentially later Iron Age features were clustered in the central part of the site.
Roman pottery was present in a number of features, including two pits and one of a pair of adjacent ditches at the southern edge of the site. Roman material was also recovered from several pits elsewhere on the site and residual with two later ditches. Other finds of potentially or likely Roman date included a possible bracelet fragment, several brick and tile fragments (including a piece of flue tile) and small pieces of lava quern.
As noted above, there was little evidence for significant post-Roman activity on the site, with no finds of definite medieval date found and only limited post-medieval material present. The majority of the ditches do though correspond with a series of roughly north-to-south and east-to-west aligned former field boundaries depicted on the Attleborough tithe map (S2) and/or the Ordnance Survey First Edition map (S1) and it is likely that at least some of the similarly-aligned features were of a broadly similar age (representing elements of this field system that had already been lost by the 19th century). Little else of potential post-medieval date was uncovered.
The expanded trench opened at the site of the previously identified burials failed to identify any obvious trace of these remains, although a very shallow feature was probably the truncated remnants of one of the graves. The unfortunate conclusion is that the in situ human remains were inadvertently removed during the excavation of this trench. The number of burials present at this location is therefore still uncertain, although we can be reasonably certain they weren't part of a large cemetery.
See report (S4) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 October 2024.