NHER 23720 (Monument record) - Iron Age ditch

April 1987.
Formerly Oak Villa Farm Context 1.
Metal detecting find somewhere in field.
Head of hinged Colchester derivative brooch, late 1st century AD, (S1).
A. Gregory (NAU) 9 April 1987.

April 1987.
Context 2 .
Same date and circumstances as above.
Bronze crossbow brooch.
See drawing in file.
A. Gregory (NAU) 20 May 1987.

April 1989. Metal detecting find. Context 3.
Copper alloy figure of eight hook in form of snake.
Possibly Roman, from steelyard?
Photographed.
D. Gurney (NAU) 3 May 1989.

Object now positively identified as 18th/19th century military belt buckle.
D. Gurney (NAU) 28 July 1989

October 1994. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometry survey revealed a few possible pit and ditch type anomalies.
See report (S2) for further details.
D. Gurney (NLA) 27 October 1994.

November 1994. Trial Trenching. Context 4.
Several ditches noted, one of extreme length suggested as Iron Age boundary ditch across peninsula; contained briquetage of Iron Age or Roman date.
Iron Age sherds also found.
Flint flakes, medieval iron knife and recent finds.
See report (S3) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S4).
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.242).
E. Rose, 22 March 1995. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 5 December 2022.

November 1996. Watching Brief.
1.15km of trenches were dug to provide new services for static caravans.
Conditions for observation were poor.
Metal detecting was also carried out but no metal artefacts were recovered.
No archaeological features were seen.
Two pot boilers were the only finds recovered.
See report (S5) for further details.
J. Percival (NAU), 20 May 1997.