NHER 66038 (Monument record) - Medieval and undated features and multi-period finds

August 2015. Watching Brief.
Maintained during groundworks associated with construction of new, single-storey dwelling.
This site was found to have been significantly truncated during the creation of a temporary site compound by Anglian Water in 2012 (associated with work to install modern sewage pipes along St Andrews Lane). This had seen the topsoil removed and replaced with layer of imported carstone spread over a geotextile membrane.
Part of the subsoil layer had however survived and the excavation of the footing trenches for the new building exposed two surviving features. The first was an undated north-to-south aligned ditch. Although no finds were recovered the fact the cut of this feature was not visible within the subsoil layer suggests it was probably of medieval or earlier date.
The second feature was a large, sub-rectangular pit with rounded corners, steep sides and a flat base. It had a single, homogenous, very dark fill that produced several sherds of high medieval pottery. This pit coincided with an area of chalk so it is possible it had been dug to acquire chalk for use in construction or the production of lime.
Unstratified finds recovered from the remnants of the subsoil layer and the redeposited topsoil included two Neolithic/Bronze Age flint flakes, ?prehistoric, Late Saxon, medieval, medieval/post-medieval, post-medieval and undated pottery sherds, part of a sandstone hone of probable medieval or post-medieval date and a fragment of animal bone.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 12 September 2012.

May-June 2018. Watching Brief.
Maintained during construction of two additional dwellings and their associated detached garages in the western half of the site.
The various foundation trenches excavated exposed only a single roughly east-to-west aligned ditch that turned towards the south-east at its eastern end.
Finds were limited to a near-complete post-medieval stoneware vessel, which was found in the topsoil.
Information from draft report. Final version awaited.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2018.249).
P. Watkins (HES), 12 September 2022. Amended 27 April 2024.