NHER 69739 (Monument record) - Potentially prehistoric, post-medieval and undated remains

November-December 2019. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The 40 trenches excavated revealed numerous pits and ditches, although unfortunately the majority of these features produced little in the way of dating evidence.
Limited evidence for prehistoric activity on the site included a small assemblage of Mesolithic/Early Neolithic blade-like flint flakes, all of which were either unstratified or likely residual. A small assemblage of prehistoric pottery was also recovered, including a sherd with fingernail decoration that was probably from a Late Neolithic/Early rusticated Beaker vessel. This probable Beaker sherd came from an otherwise undated north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditch that is one of several features that potentially correspond with linear cropmarks visible on aerial photographs of this location (all part of an extensive group of field boundaries and enclosures of predominantly Late Prehistoric or Roman date recorded as NHER 45230). A small group of grog-tempered sherds recovered from a north-to-south aligned ditch at the western edge of the site are probably from a Late Neolithic Grooved Ware vessel. This ditch also produced flint-tempered pottery that could only be assigned a broad Bronze Age to Early Iron Age date. Small amounts of similarly-undiagnostic flint-tempered pottery were also recovered from another north-to-south aligned ditch and several pits. The potentially prehistoric pits included two in a relatively dense cluster exposed in a trench in the south-west corner of the site. A sample from the ditch was one of the few to produced notable plant macrofossils, being found to contain a range of charred cereal grains.
There was little evidence for significant subsequent activity on the site. Although small amounts of medieval and post-medieval pottery were recovered this material came exclusively from unstratified soil contexts. The only features of likely or definite post-Roman date were several pits that produced fragments of post-medieval roof tile and two pits containing modern pig burials.
The numerous undated ditches displayed a variety of alignments and therefore likely represented more than one phase of past land division. A number were potentially related to the previously mapped cropmarks, although the majority of the cropmarks investigated were found to have no corresponding sub-surface remains.
See report (S1) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2019.328).
P. Watkins (HES), 25 February 2026.