NHER 55292 (Monument record) - Potentially Late Saxon to medieval ditches

December 2010. Trial Trench.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The single trench excavated revealed an east-north-east to west-south-west aligned ditch and a parallel ditch or furrow. Dating evidence was limited to a single sherd of medieval pottery recovered from the latter, with the former producing only fragments of animal bone. The cuts of these features were though not visible within the reasonably thick subsoil layer present, suggesting they were likely to be of some age. Finds recovered from this subsoil deposit included three Late Saxon pottery sherds, a piece of lava quern and fragments of animal bone. The overlying topsoil (which was also quite deep) produced a lead spindle whorl of possible medieval date and several late post-medieval/modern pottery sherds.
It is noted that the ditches were perpendicular to the nearby churchyard wall and on a similar alignment to a Middle Saxon ditch recorded during an excavation on adjacent land in 1975 (NHER 6062).
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.146).
S. Howard (HES), 23 February 2011. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 12 May 2019 and 28 March 2025.

May-June 2013. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of new residential dwelling and associated detached garage.
The foundation trenches for the new house revealed three linear features; an east-to-west aligned ditch that contained two Late Saxon pottery sherds and two nearby, undated north-to-south aligned ditches. These were cut through a lower subsoil deposit that produced a single handmade pottery sherd of Early/Middle Saxon date but appeared to be overlain by second subsoil deposit. This upper deposit contained Late Saxon pottery.
Although the footprint of the house coincided with the ditches recorded during the preceding evaluation there was no sign of these features within the excavated foundation trenches.
The foundation trenches for the garage, several soakaways and various service trenches all revealed nothing of archaeological interest.
Other unstratified finds recovered during this work (at least some from topsoil deposits) included a small assemblage of Late Saxon, medieval/post-medieval and post-medieval pottery, a piece of post-medieval clay tobacco pipe stem, a late post-medieval coin, an undated iron handle and several fragments of animal bone.
See report (S2) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2013.257).
P. Watkins (HES), 16 May 2019.