NHER 456 (Monument record) - Precinct of St Peter Hungate Church, Norwich

See NHER 188. Precinct of church.

December 2013-July 2014. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of works within churchyard to provide improved access to the Briton’s Arms (9 Elm Hill; NHER 26100).
The earliest deposit encountered was a deep, mixed graveyard soil that contained a range of objects including pottery, window glass, oyster shells and a significant number of clay tobacco pipe fragments. These finds were generally of 18th- to 19th-centruy date. Various features were observed cutting into this deposit, which was overlain by a series of mixed deposits likely to have been the result of previous landscaping (including works known to have taken place during the 1960s).
A number of burials were exposed, which lay at two distinct horizons. Four burials were exposed during the initial phase of ground reduction, the most complete of which was associated with a recognisable grave cut - the fill of which contained coffin nails and pottery and clay tobacco pipe fragments of 18th- to 19th-century date. The three other burials at this level were heavily truncated. Several additional burials subsequently encountered at a lower level were also highly disturbed.
Soil slippage caused by a rainstorm also partly exposed the western face of a post-medieval brick crypt with a concrete cap. The nature of the bricks suggested this crypt was also of probable 18th- to 19th-century date (the concrete top being most likely a later addition). A jumbled collection of bones representing the remains of several individuals encountered immediately to the west of the crypt probably represented burial that had been disturbed during its construction.
This work also exposed a section of the churchyard’s northern boundary wall, the earliest phase of which was constructed from flint and mortar and lay above a probable foundation deposit of mid brown sandy silt and chalk. This wall only survived to a height of approximately suggesting it had either collapsed or being largely demolished prior to the construction of the overlying structure. This later phase of wall consisted of flint cobbles and nodules and occasional large fragments of brick, all bonded with a hard lime mortar and capped with a layer of tile and brick fragments. This rebuild was associated with a construction cut, the fill of which contained fragments of post-medieval pottery. The latest phase of the wall was a modern stretcher-bonded brick structure which served to reface and support the wall.
Overall the finds recovered were almost exclusively of post-medieval or later date, with earlier material limited to a small number of medieval and medieval/post-medieval pottery sherds and several medieval roof tile fragments. The post-medieval finds include 84 pottery sherds, more than 100 clay tobacco pipe fragments, pieces of brick and tile, bottle, vessel and window glass, two jettons, a button and a thimble.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.474).
P. Watkins (HES), 26 February 2023.