NHER 68707 (Monument record) - Medieval and undated features and medieval pottery production waste

July 2022. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The nine trenches excavated revealed a number of ditches, the majority of which were probably associated with medieval activity.
A fairly substantial medieval pottery assemblage (almost 500 sherds) was recovered during this work, which is dominated by Grimston glazed wares of high and late medieval date. This material came largely from unstratified topsoil and subsoil contexts and includes a large proportion of wasters, including sherds with unfused or burnt-off glaze and under/overfired sherds in a range of colours, along with occasional warped sherds.
Although the pottery assemblage includes a small number of possible Late Saxon sherds and several early medieval sherds these were all either unstratified or clearly residual within later features. There was also little evidence for significant post-medieval activity. Although a single late medieval/early post-medieval pottery sherd and a small number of post-medieval sherds were recovered these were all unstratified.
The majority of the ditches uncovered were aligned either east-north-east to west-south-west or north-north-west to south-south-east. The largest stratified assemblage of medieval pottery was recovered from an east-north-east to west-south-west aligned ditch at the western end of the site, although this feature did also produce a single fragment of post-medieval brick. Smaller quantities of medieval pottery were also recovered from a number of the other ditches, although this dating evidence must inevitably be treated with a degree of caution given the amount of pottery present in the surrounding soils.
The one pit recorded was undated and two other discrete features investigated were both deemed to be of natural origin.
Samples taken from several of the features of probable medieval date contained carbonised cereal grains, with hulled barley and free-threshing wheat predominating. A rye grain, a broad bean and an indeterminate pea/bean were also noted, along with a single grain of glume wheat (notable as glume wheats were not a common component of the medieval arable economy).
Other finds from topsoil and subsoil contexts included pieces of fired clay (including possible fragments of kiln dome and a piece of possible internal kiln furniture); post-medieval brick and tile fragments; an undatable fragment of ferrous slag; medieval and post-medieval coins and a small assemblage of other, medieval to modern metal objects. These metal finds include a medieval buckle; post-medieval buttons, thimbles, a buckle, possible belt mount, fitting, mount, watch winder, copper alloy stud and lead window cames; post-medieval/modern buttons, a mount, fitting, copper alloy ring and copper alloy stud and an undated mount, copper alloy possible mirror fragment, copper alloy sheet fragment, unidentified iron objects, iron stud, unidentified lead or pewter object, various pieces of lead waste and a lead disc.
See report (S1) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.137).
P. Watkins (HES), 12 November 2024.