NHER 65464 (Monument record) - Undated pits and ditch

May 2017-April 2018. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of two new residential dwellings.
The foundation trenches within the southern plot revealed a west-north-west to east-south-east aligned ditch. Although it produced no finds its orientation suggests it was unlikely to have been of great antiquity - being perpendicular to the road and of a similar alignment to both extant property boundaries in the vicinity and former plot and field boundaries depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1st Edition Six Inch map (S1). It is though noted that its cut wasn’t visible in the subsoil layer, suggesting it was almost certainly not a modern feature.
The foundation trenches within the plot to the north revealed two large undated pit-like features, both of which appeared to be cut though the subsoil layer. It is suggested that these may have been associated with mineral extraction, but it is also possible that they were related to a series of large trees depicted in this plot of land on (S1). These appear to have been planted in two straight lines, suggesting this had probably been an orchard.
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 : 2018.227).
P. Watkins (HES), 16 March 2022.