NHER 69522 (Monument record) - Early Saxon cremation burial and Late Saxon to post-medieval remains

February 2016. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of site on proposed route of Poringland to Whitlingham Rising Main pipeline (Field 10).
This survey of the southern, north-north-west to south-south-east aligned part of the site revealed nothing of obvious archaeologically-significance. The one response of note is an east-to-west aligned linear anomaly likely to represent an infilled field boundary ditch. It is suggested that this coincides with a former boundary shown on the Ordnance Survey Second Edition map (S1), but this actually lay approximately 30m to the north. A large discrete anomaly at the southern end of the site is though to correspond with a former pond shown on the same map but this is also incorrect.
A series of closely-spaced parallel linear anomalies at the northern end of the area examined were caused by potato ridges in the field, while a nearby curvilinear anomaly was associated with tractor wheel ruts.
There was no evidence for surviving sub-surface remains associated with a group of linear earthworks visible on aerial photographs at the southern end of the site that are part of an extensive group thought to represent the remains of a medieval settlement (NHER 52447).
Information from draft report. Final version awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 17 January 2025.

January-February 2017. Strip Map and Sample Excavation.
Excavation along route of Poringland to Whitlingham Rising Main pipeline (Site 5).
The work revealed an Early Saxon cremation burial and various ditches, pits and potentially structural remains associated with Late Saxon to medieval phases of activity.
The cremation burial lay in the northern part of the site and consisted of a small pit containing the broken fragments of a small and apparently undecorated cremation vessel. This vessel contained 295g of cremated human bone but no charcoal, suggesting the bone fragments had been carefully removed from the pyre. One piece of bone yielded an Early Saxon radiocarbon date of 498-616 cal AD at 95% probability (SUERC-73737; 1516 ± 33 BP). Given the evidence for careful sorting of the cremation deposit it is notable that it also contained two pieces of Roman pottery, suggesting their inclusion was potentially deliberate – particularly as these sherds and a single possible imbrex fragment were the only finds of this date recovered. A single sherd of potentially Early Saxon pottery found residual within a nearby later post-hole was the only other evidence for activity during this period.
The recovery of more than 50 Late Saxon pottery sherds (primarily Thetford-type wares) and a similar quantity of early medieval wares demonstrates that the main phase of activity at this site had commenced by at least the 11th century - although much of this material was residual within later features. The one feature that could be confidently assigned a probable Late Saxon date was a pit in the northern part of the site that contained 24 Late Saxon pottery sherds. Virtually all of the other Late Saxon pottery was residual within features that produced early medieval and later pottery, although it is notable that it was present across both parts of the site. Although much of the early medieval pottery was also probably residual it is possible to identify a cluster of features in the southern half of the site as being associated with an initial phase of medieval activity – these producing small amounts of early medieval pottery and little or no later wares. These features included two adjacent groups of intercutting east-to-west aligned ditches that had possibly bounded a trackway and a group of potentially structural remains immediately to the south comprising several gullies, a post-hole and a relatively shallow pit-like feature almost entirely filled with flint nodules. A more isolated pit and another east-to-west aligned ditch were also potentially associated with this phase of activity.
Later, high medieval activity appears to have been focused more in the northern part of the site. The more notable medieval features in this area included a line of five post-holes that potentially represented the remains of some form of structure and an adjacent curvilinear ditch that enclosed an area containing at least two additional post-holes. The exact nature of these remains is though uncertain as the line of post-holes lay adjacent to the edge of the excavation and the curvilinear ditch (and much of the area it enclosed) had been truncated by two later ditches. These substantial ditches were of probable high medieval date and comprised a north-west to south-east aligned feature and a potentially later north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditch. It is noted that the former appears to coincide with an extensive, broad and somewhat sinuous cropmark feature visible on 2006 Google Earth aerial imagery (S3) running between TG 2780 0510 and TG 2801 0489. It is possible that this marked the edge of the medieval settlement at this location.
Other medieval remains in this part of the site included a pair of adjacent flint surfaces. These were overlain by an extensive deposit that contained a notable quantity of high medieval and late medieval pottery. A similar mix of high and late medieval pottery was recovered from a north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditch that emerged from the northern side of this spread, although this feature was also found to contain a dagger chape of probable early post-medieval date and a post-medieval roof tile fragment.
In the southern excavation area high medieval or later remains were largely limited to several widely-spaced north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditches. The majority produced no finds, the exception being the southernmost (and most substantial) of these ditches, which contained a small amount of post-medieval and potentially post-medieval ceramic building material. An east-to-west aligned ditch was though the only feature in this part of the site that could be confidently identified as post-medieval, producing a number of finds of this date and coinciding with a former field boundary shown on the Ordnance Survey First Edition map (S2).
Other finds recovered from the features of probable medieval date included fragments of lava quern (some identified as being of 'Saxon type'), pieces of fired clay, a whetstone of white quartz-schist, a tiny fragment of metal-working debris, fragments of animal bone and oyster shells. Samples taken from a number of these features produced little in the way of charred plant macrofossils, although two from the group of early medieval remains in the southern excavation area did contain small amounts of cereal grain.
Although the southern end of the excavated area coincided with the easternmost of the medieval settlement earthworks visible on aerial photographs of this area (NHER 52447) no corresponding sub-surface remains were identified. It is though notable that the early medieval ditches in the southern part of the site have the same orientation as these earthworks, which are virtually all aligned either east-to-west or north-to-south.
Unstratified finds included a medieval/post-medieval copper alloy chafing dish fragment, a small number of additional Late Saxon and medieval pottery sherds, lava quern fragments, an undatable piece of bottle glass, fragments of fired clay and a single piece of animal bone.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 17 January 2026.