NHER 51534 (Monument record) - Site where groundworks exposed only modern deposits

May-June 2008. Trial Trenching.
Excavation of two trial trenches in advance of redevelopment. From Context 1.
Details to come.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.113).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 12 May 2008. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 12 May 2019.

October 2016-January 2017. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of various groundworks associated with construction of new residential development, including piling operations and excavations for ground beams. Piling arisings suggest that mixed deposits containing brick and chalk fragments lie at a depth of approximately 3m below ground level, beneath which a very dark grey brown silty sand was encountered. Below 4m the arisings comprised a wet chalk slurry. No finds were recovered from this material.
The deposits exposed by the excavations for the ground beams were predominantly fairly dark grey brown sandy silts that contained frequent inclusions of flint, chalk and brick. Areas of brick rubble were also present and layers of compacted chalk were exposed close to the eastern boundary of the site; the latter possible the remains of some form of floor or other deliberately-lain surface. Finds were limited to small amounts of post-medieval and modern pottery sherds and clay tobacco pipe fragments.
The excavation of a large square pit for attenuation tanks exposed a series of layers that probably represented material that had been tipped into some form of large feature. These deposits included tips of white chalk rubble and very dark silty sand. Finds from this area included fragments of clay tobacco pipe and pottery of relatively recent date.
Although the various excavations were up to 2m deep no natural deposits were encountered and it appears that most, if not all, of the deposits exposed during this work were associated with modern disturbance of the site. This is consistent with the evidence seen during the piling operations and suggests that archaeologically significant remains may well survive at a greater depth.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 7 February 2018.