NHER 42824 (Monument record) - The Shrubbery, Blackfriars Road

April 1976. Found when floor of shed removed.
Large dressed stones resembling plinth courses. In adjacent rockery, sections of window surrounds in large numbers.
Previous owner was a builder so it is possible these had been imported from elsewhere.
Information from (S1) at KLM.
E.M. James (KLM), 1976.

January 2006.
The shed in question is aligned east-west and replaces a building shown on (S2). The present building projected south from it and is not on that map; it dates from about 1900 and was clearly added against the removed building. It has a strange single storey north-west projection with a large window in each wall. The wall running along the street to the south is partly of bricks with diagonal skintlings (pre circa 1780) and partly of later bricks.
E. Rose (NLA), 7 January 2006.

February 2007. Trial Trenching. Contexts 1-38.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
Two deep trial trenches and a further shallower investigative trench were excavated. These revealed the presence of late medieval riverine deposits at the street frontage which probably relate to infilling of the medieval watercourse depicted on early maps of the towns as bordering the frontage of the site. The odiferous waste and other late medieval riverine deposits may be attributed to the silting up of a medieval watercourse known as Fisherfleet, and the ditch may mark the edge of a building plot which extended from a medieval street frontage along Littleport Street. A brick culvert was contructed in the mid 19th century along a similar course to that of the fleet and this was noted in the trench closest to the street frontage.
The late medieval ditch found towards the south-east of the site was filled from the 15th century with a mixture of silt and domestic waste. It also contained residual artefacts of probable 13th to 14th century date. It is probably a boundary ditch dividing the long plots which once extended from the medieval street frontage along Littleport Street.
A rockery at the south of the site included a mix of modern and medieval worked stone which appears to have been imported onto the site. Two late medieval pieces appear to be from the same window and are almost certainly from an ecclesiastical building.
The site appears to have remained as open ground and gardens from the late medieval period until relatively recently when 19th-century buildings occupied its north-west corner.
See report (S3) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S4). See also (S5).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.268).
J. Allen (NLA), 15 May 2007. Amended A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 9 May 2019 and P. Watkins (HES), 16 May 2019.

May 2007. Watching Brief.
Groundworks for the construction of a residential building were monitored. Contexts 50-56.
No finds or features of archaeological interest were recorded, although a single modern rubbish pit was observed at the east end of a trench excavated at the edge of Blackfriars' Road to locate a sewer main. Despite the position of these trenches, nothing was observed to suggest an edge cut for the line of the Fisher Fleet, and the late 19th century culvert observed elsewhere was not encountered.
See report (S6) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.268).
H. Hamilton (NLA), 28 February 2008. Amended A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 9 May 2019 and P. Watkins (HES), 16 May 2019.