NHER 42776 (Monument) - Medieval to post medieval county boundary ditch and post medieval pit

December 2005. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site (partially in Suffolk).
Several archaeological features were recorded during excavation of a series of evaluation trenches. The majority of these features lie along the northern (Norfolk) edge of the site near to the line of the county boundary and generally appear to be of a post medieval date. These consist of a large pit containing flint debris from the local 19th/20th century gunflint or building industries and several east-west aligned ditches that likely marked the county boundary.
The exception is an undated ditch which lies on a different alignment from the other identified ditches and is clearly of an earlier date as it is sealed beneath the grey sand deposits thay underly the post medieval ditches.
The county boundary itself appears to have been marked by a substantial ditch, the main central fill containing a single piece of post medieval roof tile.
See report (S1) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 12 December 2005. Amended H. Hamilton (HES), 28 February 2014.

March 2006. Excavation.
Four additional areas were excavated in order to determine the size and nature of the ditch along the county boundary. The ditch was found to be quite substantial and was recut several times, gradually shifting to the north by several metres. The final phase of the ditch closely matches the modern county boundary. Dating evidence was extremely limited, but the final ditch appears to have been infilled in the late medieval or post medieval period. By the late 19th century (S4) only a belt of trees and a possible fenceline marked the boundary.
See report (S3) for further details.
J. Allen (NLA), 5 March 2007. Amended H. Hamilton (HES), 28 February 2014.

October 2015. Excavation.
Further investigation of the county boundary ditch, the aim of which was to collect material for Optical Spin Luminescence (OSL) analysis and dating.
The excavation of this new cross-section revealed a similar profile to the earlier work, with the sequence of intercutting ditches suggesting that the boundary had shifted slightly northwards over time. No finds were recovered, again indicating an absence of settlement in the vicinity of this location.
Although two OSL dates were obtained the date of origin of this boundary remains uncertain. A tentative Middle Saxon date of 615-815 AD was obtained for one of the earlier deposits in the stratigraphic sequence, its validity is questionably as a stratigraphically later deposit gave a much earlier, Iron Age to Roman date of 185 BC-215 AD.
See report (S5) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 23 September 2024.