NHER 65570 (Monument record) - Medieval and undated remains

September 2011. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The 18 trenches excavated revealed a number of ditches and two discrete features, all of which lay in the north-western half of the site, close to Carver’s Lane.
A small assemblage of Mesolithic/Early Neolithic worked flints and a pottery sherd of possible Iron Age date provide evidence for at least limited prehistoric activity, although this material was all either unstratified or probably residual in later contexts.
The ditches included a number of north-east to south-west aligned ditches that were probably associated with a single boundary running adjacent to Carver’s Lane. One produced a small assemblage of early medieval pottery. The majority of the other ditches were perpendicular, north-west to south-east aligned features; the dating evidence from which was limited to single sherds of early medieval and post-medieval pottery.
The one discrete feature of note was a large, relatively shallow pit or hollow with a dark, almost black fill that contained frequent small fragments of crushed burnt flint. A sample from this deposit was found to contain charcoal, occasional charred cereal grains, hazel nutshell and material likely to represent residues from the combustion of organic remains. This assemblage was though not particularly distinct from those found in samples taken from a number of the ditches.
There was no evidence for sub-surface remains associated with two west-north-west to east-south-east aligned cropmarks recorded at this location (NHER 58618). It was though noted at the time they were recorded that they were not necessarily archaeological in origin.
The small number of other unstratified finds recovered include medieval and medieval/post-medieval pottery sherds and two post-medieval brick fragments.
It appears that the archive associated with this work has probable now been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.656).
P. Watkins (HES), 17 May 2022.