NHER 68677 (Monument record) - Post-medieval and undated remains

March 2022. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of proposed development site.
This survey identified little of obvious or likely archaeological significance.
A series of parallel east-to-west aligned linear trends in the westernmost part of the site are the result of agricultural activity and may represent the traces of ridge and furrow cultivation. These anomalies are bounded to the east by a north-to-south aligned linear anomaly likely to represent a former field boundary. These doesn’t correspond with any boundaries shown on the available 19th-century maps, although its position and orientation suggest it is almost certainly a lost element of the field system present at this time.
Although various other fragmentary linear and curvilinear anomalies were recorded these are all of uncertain nature and probably most likely of agricultural or natural origin.
A number of scattered discrete dipolar anomalies were probably caused my ferrous material on or near the surface (most likely modern debris).
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 21 October 2024.

July 2022. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The 64 trenches excavated revealed a number of scattered linear and discrete features, the majority of which were of probable post-medieval date.
The limited evidence for earlier activity included a small assemblage of prehistoric worked flints, most of which were clearly residual within later features. The bulk of these flints are of Late Neolithic/Bronze Age date, although one bladelet is potentially Mesolithic and two cruder pieces are probably Late Bronze Age. Later finds included a single unstratified Roman pottery sherd and four medieval pottery sherds. One of the medieval sherds came from an otherwise undated ditch but the remainder were either unstratified or residual within post-medieval features.
The post-medieval remains included a series of west-north-west to east-south-east and north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditches in the southern part of the site. These contained a number of post-medieval finds including pottery sherds, brick and tile fragments and pieces of clay tobacco pipe. One of the west-north-west to east-south-east ditches corresponds with a former field boundary depicted on the East Harling tithe map (S2) with the other ditches likely to represent elements the field system that had already been removed by the mid 19th century. A number of parallel west-north-west to east-south-east linear features at the northern end of the site also contained fragments of post-medieval ceramic building material. It is possible that some of these were traces of the cultivation features that had been identified by the preceding geophysical survey.
A number of probable extraction pits in the southern half of the site were also of relatively recent date, producing a range of post-medieval finds including pottery, brick and tile fragments, pieces of clay tobacco pipe and bottle glass. A number of iron nails, a heel iron and an unidentified iron object were also recovered from these pits. Samples taken from the fills of two of these features produced nothing of interest.
A small number of undated pits and ditches and a single post-hole were also recorded, along with a number of probable natural features.
There was little correspondence between the results of this work and those of the preceding geophysical survey, which had clearly failed to identify much of what was recorded. None of the linear anomalies of uncertain origin were found to be associated with sub-surface remains.
See report (S3) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.130).
P. Watkins (HES), 21 October 2024.

October 2024. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development area in northern part of site.
The thirteen additional trenches excavated revealed no archaeologically-significant features or deposits. This work confirmed that the weak geophysical anomalies identified at this location were not associate with sub-surface remains.
No finds were recovered.
See report (S4) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2024.236).
P. Watkins (HES), 7 January 2025. Amended 24 August 2025.