NHER 66896 (Monument record) - Undated ditch and Holocene deposits

October-November 2021. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of north-western half of proposed development site.
The 25 trenches excavated revealed only a single feature – a north-east to south-west aligned ditch recorded in the north-east corner of the area examined. No dating evidence was recovered.
There was no evidence for surviving sub-surface remains associated with a probable ring-ditch visible on aerial photographs at TF 6338 1978. None of the excavated trenches coincided with a second, smaller ring ditch mapped at TF 6329 1983 (both part of a group of cropmark and earthwork features recorded as NHER 38303).
Finds were limited to the unstratified fragments of a plant pot of 19th- or 20th-century date.
As would be expected the trenches exposed alluvial deposits beneath the topsoil. In places the removal of this silty clay material exposed deposits described as dark organic muds that often contained fragments of partially decayed wood. This organic material was overlain by a distinctive layer of bluish grey alluvial silty clay. Older 'beach' deposits were encountered at the northern and eastern margins of the site, which coincided with areas of higher, drier ground.
A sample taken from one of the organic deposits found that although plant macrofossils were present these were very poorly preserved and seeds virtually absent.
See report (S1) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2021.182).
P. Watkins (HES), 12 May 2023.