NHER 67188 (Monument record) - Prehistoric and medieval to post-medieval remains

January 2014. Excavation.
Excavation of site of new industrial building within Abbey Farm Commercial Park.
Two clusters of linear and discrete features were exposed, one at the western end of the site and the other at the eastern end. Although the majority of these remains produced little or no dating evidence it is likely that most were associated with medieval or later phases of activity.
There was though some limited evidence for prehistoric activity on the site, including a small assemblage of worked flints. The flint implements recovered are mostly of likely Early Neolithic date and a number of blades and blade-like flakes are probably of a similar age. The one potentially later piece is a horseshoe scraper of later Bronze Age or Iron Age date found in a probable natural feature. Although the largest stratified assemblage came from a large pit that also produced prehistoric pottery these sherds have been identified as Early Iron Age. Pottery of a similar date was also residual within several adjacent, later features.
The ditches uncovered produced little in the way of dating evidence, the one exception being a north-to-south aligned ditch at the western end of the site. Although several fragments of medieval brick and tile were recovered elsewhere these were mostly found along with later, post-medieval material.
Features of probable post-medieval date included a north-north-east to south-south-west aligned linear feature at the eastern end of the site interpreted as the remains of a hedge line. This irregular, intermittent feature contained fragments of post-medieval roof tiles. A number of pits had been dug adjacent to this boundary, several of which produced fragments of medieval and post-medieval ceramic building material. Two had been dug in order to bury horses.
Unstratified finds included a two sherds of Early Iron Age pottery a post-medieval roof tile and a small assemblage of undatable (but most likely modern) metal objects.
See report (S1) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.226).
P. Watkins (HES), 5 August 2023.