NHER 68955 (Monument record) - Medieval to post-medieval remains

March 2020. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of proposed development site comprising the rear extension of a former public house (72 Howard Street South) and an open yard to the south-west.
See Heritage Statement (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 13 March 2025.

November 2023. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
This work took place following various groundworks, including the excavation of eight geotechnical test pits, the demolition of the 19th- or 20th-century extension at the rear of the former pub and the emptying of an underlying cellar.
Two square trial trenches dug within the area of the former yard revealed evidence for multiple phases of medieval to post-medieval activity. One encountered only the basement of a late post-medieval building that was filled with loose modern rubble. The second trench did though reveal a full deposit sequence, with a natural yellowish grey coarse sand encountered at a depth of approximately 4.50m below present ground level. This material was overlain by several sandy silt deposits (the earliest of which contained a small amount of early medieval pottery) and a clay surface. These layers were truncated by a medieval timber-lined cess pit and another pit of probable medieval date. The former produced small amounts of early and high medieval pottery and an iron fish hook. Clay deposits capping its lower fills were overlain by probable medieval occupation deposits that contained additional high medieval pottery, two medieval roof tile fragments and fragments of fired clay. Samples take from these layers produced a range of material likely to represent domestic waste, including charred grains and seeds, numerous fish bones and other fragments of animal bone. A subsequent period of abandonment was represented by a thick layer of windblow sand which was truncated by a pit that contained pottery of late medieval to early post-medieval date and two undated post-holes. These remains were overlain by north-west to south-east and north-east to south-west aligned brick walls forming the corning of a building. These were constructed from unfrogged post-medieval bricks of 18th- to 19th-century date. An internal floor layer associated with this building survived, as did traces of an external gravel yard surface. The remains of a second brick building of later post-medieval date were revealed immediately to the north-east. This was associated with a cellar, and a garden wall incorporating what appeared to be reused bricks of medieval to post-medieval date.
The only potential evidence for activity on the site prior to the medieval period was a single fragment of possible prehistoric pottery (and this was most likely a fragment of medieval fired clay).
See report (S2) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2024.23).
P. Watkins (HES), 14 March 2025. Amended 24 August 2025.