NHER 65568 (Monument record) - Undated ditches and possible pits

April 2014. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of two adjacent proposed development areas (Phases 4 and 5).
It is clear from Faden’s map of 1797 (S1) that both of these areas lay at the eastern end of a block of common land known as West Carr. It is likely that the eastern boundary of the northern area would have coincided with the eastern margin of the common. Carver’s Lane did not exist at this time but West Carr Road to the south appears to have been present, being one of two route ways shown cutting across the common. A map of 1812 (S2) shows the situation around the time of enclosure. The northern area (Phase 4) is shown split into a series of relatively narrow north-to-south aligned fields, whereas that to the south (Phase 5) falls entirely within a single large field. Carver’s Lane can now be seen, labelled as '7th Private Road'.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 17 May 2022.

June 2015. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of two adjacent proposed development sites (Phases 4 and 5; Trenches 1-8).
The eight trenches excavated at this location revealed only a small number of scattered linear and discrete features, none of which produced any dating evidence.
The majority of the ditches were aligned either north-west to south-east or north-east to south-west. Their orientations were therefore distinct from those of the field boundaries known to have been present from at least the 19th century onwards, suggesting they were potentially associated with a much earlier phase of activity.
Two of the trenches crossed the line of a north-north-east to south-south-west aligned linear cropmark visible on aerial photographs, which is part of a group of undated features recorded as NHER 57502. However, although this cropmark coincided with a ditch recorded in one of these trenches, this appears to have been coincidental - the alignment of this feature suggesting it was probably unrelated.
The majority of the discrete features investigated were deemed to be of probable natural origin and the small number of possible pits all appear to have been fairly unremarkable.
A number of modern field drains were also recorded.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.599).
P. Watkins (HES), 17 May 2022.