NHER 69853 (Find Spot record) - Roman, medieval to post-medieval and post-medieval to modern finds

April 2013. Test Pit.
Excavation of two test pits by local school children as part of the Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA) programme run by Access Cambridge Archaeology.

The first test pit (ACL/13/6) was located at [1] and excavated to natural geological deposits, which were encountered at a depth of 0.80m. Finds recovered included:
2 Roman pottery sherds.
1 late medieval/early post-medieval pottery sherd.
2 post-medieval pottery sherds and 3 clay tobacco pipe stem fragments.
31 late post-medieval/modern pottery sherds.
This test pit also produced a number of other finds that were not subject to specialist examination, most, if not all, of which are either of probable late post-medieval to modern date or inherently undatable. These additional objects include 27 unidentified ceramic building material fragments, 3 slate fragments, various pieces of bottle, container and probable window glass, a ‘leaf and berries’ brooch, a thin metal hoop, 7 iron nails, a twisted lead rod, 3 pieces of iron slag and single oyster, cockle and mussel shells.

The second test pit (ACL/13/9) was located at [2] and did not reach natural geological deposits – excavation being halted at a depth of 0.40m due to time constraints. The small number of finds recovered included:
2 Roman pottery sherds.
1 late post-medieval/modern pottery sherd.
This test pit also produced a number of other finds that were not subject to specialist examination, most, if not all, of which are either of probable late post-medieval to modern date or inherently undatable. These additional objects include a roof tile fragment, 3 unidentified ceramic building material fragments and an iron bolt.

For further details, including a wider discussion of the results of the HEFA test pitting surveys undertaken in Acle between 2009 and 2014 see report (S1), which incorporates information from pottery report (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 12 May 2026.