NHER 40105 (Monument record) - Probable medieval extractive pit at Monks Gate, land north of Abbey Barns

January 2004. Trial Trenching.
Two small trial trenches were excavated immediately north-west of the Thetford Priory grounds (NHER 5748) prior to residential redevelopment of the area. Contexts 1000-1004.
No archaeological finds or features were recorded within Trench 1. A single pit likely of medieval date was recorded in Trench 2. The fill of the pit contained brick and tile, one animal bone fragment, one coal fragment, and one large residual sherd of possible Middle Iron Age or Late Bronze Age pottery re-used as a tile. A single residual 12th to 13th pottery sherd was also recovered from the subsoil. It has been suggested that the pit may have been used for localised sand or chalk extraction.
See report (S1) for further details. The results of this work were also summarised in (S2).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2007.307).
T. Sunley (NLA), 11 April 2007. Updated by H. Hamilton (NLA), 5 November 2008 and P. Watkins (HES), 5 May 2019.