NHER 40728 (Monument record) - Medieval and post medieval features, former John Grose Garage, Southgate Street

May 2004. Desk-Based Assessment.
Assessment of proposed redevelopment site.
See report (S1) for details.
A. Cattermole (NLA), 23 June 2005.

September-October 2004. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site. Three trenches excavated. Contexts 1-320.
Evidence for possible medieval and certain post medieval occupation was recorded. Two large channel-like features were partially defined, one of which may have been a ditch draining the interior of the town defences and the other a former course of the River Nar. The outfall of an impressive and well-preserved brick-built culvert or drain was also uncovered which was probably constructed in the late medieval or early post medieval period.
The earliest deposits were alluvial clays and silts which suggest that up until the middle of the 13th century much of the area of Southgate Street was unaltered marine tidal foreshore. This naturally accumulated alluvial material was cut by a pit dating from the late 13th to erly 14th century, and filled with alternate bands of tile and mortar rubble. A 14th century ditch appears to have been used to channel freshwater but was subject to tidal influences. It may have been one of the many drainage ditches or sub-fleets that characterise late medieval King's Lynn. However, it is also possible that, given its proximity to the South Gate (NHER #), it was in face an interior defensive ditch running on the inside of the bank.
Remains from the 15th century include the footings of a short length of brick wall, perhaps part of an outbuilding relating to domestic or commercial buildings on the southern side of Southgate Street. This feature provides the earliest evidence for occupation on the street frontage of the site. This wall had been demolished by the 16th century and the process of raising the ground level across the site by up to 0.8m began. These dumped deposits are charcoal and rubble-rich, suggesting the destruction or demolition of a nearby building, perhaps by fire. This dumping appears to have continued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, with little evidence for domestic waste, supporting map evidence which shows this area as being marginal land to the rear of houses that fronted onto Southgate Street.
Trench 3, to the south-east of the site, located a large channel, perhaps the channel of the Nar or the Cockle Dyke (the precursor of the Middleton Stop Drain). Throughout the late medieval and early post-medieval period this area was subject to numerous episodes of dumping of domestic refuse.
Trench 4 was found to contain a large channel or dyke between 2.5m and 3m wide and aligned approximately north-south. Shortly after it was dug in the 14th to 15th centuries, the base of the channel was packed with faggots to maintain water flow through the channel. The channel was recut in the 15th to 16th centuries and replaced by a brick culvert with four parallel walls defining three channels, presumably as part of a municipal building project. The culvert appears to have been demolished in the 17th century. This is significant because if it was part of the southern defensive circuit of the town it is likely to have gone out of use at the same time as the rest of the southern defences. The civil war defences south of the Nar were in place by 1645 and therefore this part of the defensive system became obsolete.
The site appears to have been levelled in the 19th century, and the ash, clinker and cinder that make up the yard surface were possibly from the smithy shown on the Ordnance Survey first edition map of the area. Two post-holes were perhaps also associated with this smithy, or with the timber yard shown on Wood's map of 1830.
See report (S2), and report (S3) which supersedes it, for further details.
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.325).
J. Allen (NLA), 5 October 2006. Amended A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 9 May 2019.

May 2006. Trial Trench.
Completion of earlier evaluation, with excavation of a final trench within the footprint of the former garage. Contexts 350-399.
Revealed the probable remnants of a late medieval structure, a medieval pit and natural silting possibly formed within a disused channel associated with the River Nar. A sample taken from the medieval pit produced evidence of cereal processing, and a wooden plank at its base suggests the pit may have been plank-lined.
See revised evaluation report (S3) for further details.
J. Allen (NLA), 5 October 2006.

October 2006.
The piling layout has been designed so as to achieve preservation in situ of the culvert seen in evaluation trench 4.
See (S4) in file.
D. Gurney (NLA), 10 October 2006.