NHER 69478 (Monument record) - Prehistoric, post-medieval and undated remains

September 2020. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of potential impact of proposed development.
Nothing of interest was noted during a site visit undertaken as part of this study.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 17 September 2025.

March 2022. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of proposed development site (F2).
Although this survey identified a number of extensive linear anomalies likely to represent infilled ditches, these features all correspond with former field boundaries depicted on the Old Buckenham tithe map (S2). The only other responses of note are two discrete anomalies of uncertain origin that may represent archaeologically-significant remains. The majority of the other discrete anomalies are all thought to be of probable geological origin.
Several groups of parallel linear anomalies almost certainly represent recent field drains.
Scattered discrete dipolar anomalies were probably caused by ferrous material on or close the surface (most likely modern debris).
Information from draft report. Final version awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 17 September 2025.

April-July 2024, Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of part of large proposed development site (Trenches 16-93).
The 78 trenches excavated at this location revealed numerous linear and discrete features, although these remains were widely dispersed and mostly poorly dated. There was though clear evidence for activity during multiple prehistoric periods. The site produced a small quantity of probable Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Beaker pottery, the bulk of which was recovered from a single pit in the south-west part of the site, along with a number of potentially contemporary flint flakes. A sample from the fill of this feature was found to contain charcoal and charred nutshell fragments. Although similar pottery sherds were recovered elsewhere on the site these were all small and most likely residual. The same was probably true for the small number of worked flints recovered from other features, the majority of which are also of probable Neolithic to Bronze Age date.
The site produced more than 200 Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age ‘Post Deverel Rimbury’ pottery sherds. The bulk of this assemblage came from just two pits, although smaller quantities of sherds were also recovered from a range of other pits and ditches, the majority of which were concentrated in the central part of the site. Other finds recovered from these features included a stone saddle quern, which was recovered from one of the better-dated pits. Although much of the pottery could only be broadly dated as Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age, the decorated and otherwise diagnostic sherds recovered suggest that the larger individual assemblages at least all relate to Early Iron Age activity.
There was also evidence for at least limited subsequent later Iron Age activity on the site, with pottery identified as Middle Iron Age recovered from a cluster of pits and other features close the main concentration of potentially Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age remains. Middle Iron Age pottery was also recovered from one of a line of four post-holes that potentially represented the remains of some form of structure.
There was though little evidence for subsequent activity on the site, later remains being limited to a number of the ditches that correspond with former field boundaries depicted on 19th-century maps, field drains and various other linear features thought to be of relatively recent date.
Given the limited nature of the later remains it seems likely that many of the undated pits recorded across the site were associated with the prehistoric phases of activity. The age of the various undated ditches recorded is though more uncertainly, particularly as the range of alignments suggests that multiple phases of activity are almost certainly represented. The interpretation of these remains is further complicated by the fact that few could be traced into adjacent trenches.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 17 September 2025.