NHER 24627 (Monument record) - Site of Roman villa

June to August 1988.
Roman ditch. Roofing tiles in upper fill suggest nearby Roman building. Small excavation found possible traces of this.

September 1988.
Old metal detector finds identified by D.A. Gurney (NLA).

November 1988.
Two pilae of hypocaust exposed in trench.

January 1989.
Roman pit with pottery.

March 1989. Metal detecting finds.
Roman brooches.

October-November 1993. Trial Trench and Test Pitting.
Evaluation undertaken prior to the development of the land immediately to the west of the earlier discoveries. A single trench and a series of test pits were excavated.
The trench revealed a number of archaeologically significant features, including ditches and pits. Several periglacial natural features were also identified. Two of the three ditches identified were aligned north-to-south and were probably Roman or earlier in date. One was cut by a much more substantial ditch with a 'v'-shaped base; this feature was almost certainly Roman, its north-east to south-west alignment being similar to the substantial linear feature identified to the east. The pits found were of varying size and shape, although the finds recovered suggested that all were of probable Roman date. Roman building material was recovered from a number of features, including fragments of tegulae, imbrices, box-tile, flue-tile and tesserae. The largest pit also contained a number of large flints and chalk blocks.
A shallow Roman pit, what was possibly a truncated gully and another natural feature were the only archaeologically-significant remains to be identified in the test pits.
Although the majority of the finds found during this work were Roman limited evidence for earlier activity was also recovered. Seventy-eight worked flints were found, the majority either from unstratified contexts or residual in later features (although 13 were recovered from one of the natural features). Although much of the assemblage is undiagnostic several small blades and long flakes with light patination are of probable Mesolithic or Early Neolithic date. Two sherds of flint-gritted ?Iron Age pottery were also found. Finds of certain Roman date included a small assemblage of pottery (mostly locally-made coarse wares) and 199 fragments of ceramic building material. Other finds recovered included iron and copper alloy fragments, pieces of lead scrap, a small number of animal bone fragments and a piece of potentially Roman blue-green glass. Post-Roman finds were limited to two sherds of post-medieval pottery.
See report (S3) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S4).
Material associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (documentary archive accessioned as NWHCM : 2022.169 and finds as NWHCM : 1998.56.A407).
P. Watkins (HES), 5 April 2013. Amended 29 April 2019.

November 1993. Minor Excavation
Excavation by E. Savery of small hole in field to north of residential development (on roughly the same site as where he had excavated a hole the previous year. This hole exposed substantial foundations with layers of mortared tiles. See photos in file. Finds recovered included three combed tile fragments, eight pieces of painted wall plaster (mostly brownish yellow) and 25 tesserae made from cut-down tile (most with mortar adhering). It is notable that these discoveries are close to where the greatest concentration of Roman features was found during the evaluation of the land to the south.
P. Watkins (HES), 5 April 2013.