NHER 67128 (Monument record) - Medieval to post-medieval and undated remains

February 2023. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of site of proposed irrigation reservoir.
The six trenches excavated exposed a number of ditches and several discrete features, most of which produced little or no dating evidence.
Some limited evidence for prehistoric activity was recovered, including a small assemblage of prehistoric worked flints. This includes a later Mesolithic microlith, several Mesolithic bladelets and a number of blades and flakes of probable Mesolithic/Early Neolithic date. The bulk of these early pieces were recovered from a single ditch at the northern end of the site and while they were not necessarily contemporary with this feature, the fact they display only slight edge damage suggests they had not moved far from where they were originally deposited. The only other stratified prehistoric find was a handmade pottery sherd of possible Iron Age date recovered from an otherwise undated post-hole. A sample taken from the fill of this feature produced little of note.
The ditches recorded displayed a diverse range of alignments, indicating that multiple phases of activity were represented. The majority were undated, the main exception being a north-north-west to south-south-east aligned feature that contained medieval pottery and a roof tile of medieval to post-medieval date. A medieval or later date for this feature is also suggested by the fact its alignment is identical to that of a former field boundary shown immediately to the east of the site on 19th-century maps. Potentially of a similar age were two perpendicular, east-north-east to west-south-west aligned ditches to the west, one of which also contained a fragment of medieval or post-medieval roof tile.
Also probably of relatively recent date was a substantial quarry pit exposed in the south-west corner of the site, although no finds were recovered during the investigation of this feature.
The only other discrete feature of note was an undated pit, all of the others investigated proving to be of likely natural origin.
Unstatified finds included several prehistoric worked flints, single sherds of undiagnostic prehistoric and medieval pottery and a small assemblage of metal objects, comprising a medieval thimble, post-medieval coins and several other post-medieval and late post-medieval/modern objects.
See report (S1) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2023.45).
P. Watkins (HES), 25 June 2023. Amended 7 January 2024.