NHER 48964 (Monument record) - Multi-period finds and features

October-November 2005. Strip Map and Sample Excavation.
Excavation undertaken prior to construction of Stoke Ferry to Downham Market water pipeline. The work was undertaken in two stages, with the main phase of excavation completed following the initial stripping of the easement. In areas where deep subsoil deposits survived a second phase of work was undertaken during the excavation of the pipe trench itself.
Evidence for prehistoric activity was recovered, including Mesolithic or early Neolithic flint blades, a Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age pit and two gold Iron Age coins.
A large number of Roman finds were recovered from the northern part of the site, providing clear evidence that a settlement of some sort, perhaps a villa, once lay nearby. A number of excavated features including a trackway, pits and several ditches were potentially of Roman date. These features produced a diverse range of artefacts including pottery, tiles, coins and brooches. Other Roman finds were recovered from unstratified contexts and included a vessel fragment and tweezers.
Early Saxon material was recovered from several areas, particularly within the same areas that much of the Roman material was recovered from. In Area 1 to the south a sub-square pit with two small postholes was revealed, and may be the remains of an Early Saxon sunken featured building.
A number of Late Saxon and medieval features were excavated, including ditches, pits and a possible building.
Eight articulated human skeletons were recovered along with the disarticulated remains of several other individuals. While these were recovered close to the present-day church of St Mary's (NHER 2468), the excavator thinks they may have been of Late Saxon date as some grave fills contained Late Saxon pottery and part of the cemetery was truncated by features containing only Late Saxon dating evidence. These are probably part of a previously recorded burial ground, NHER 2434, which was thought to date from the medieval period. A cluster of features close to the burials consisted of a deep pit surrounded by a number of post holes which were interpreted as the possible remains of an early medieval sunken featured building. A large number of ditches also recorded in this part of the site appear to form a series of enclosures or field boundaries (as suggested by the cropmarks recorded under NHER 35584). Although the dating evidence recovered from these features was minimal, many were considered to be of Late Saxon or early medieval date.
Several medieval extractive pits, a post medieval ditch and a post medieval brick surface were also identified in Area B. Some finds were recovered from these features. They were almost certainly excavated to extract the good quality sand present in this area.
See assessment report (S1) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.113).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 3 October 2007. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 18 May 2019.