NHER 56794 (Monument record) - Undated pits and post-medieval and undated ditches

September 2011. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of site of proposed new irrigation reservoir.
This survey identified no potentially archaeologically-significant anomalies. The anomalies detected were likely to be the result of modern ploughing, land drains and variations in the superficial geological deposits.
See report (S1) for further details.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 24 August 2020.

May-June 2013. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of irrigation reservoir at western end of site. Topsoil was stripping from the footprint of the reservoir itself and the line of a new access road and associated drainage ditch.
The topsoil was up to 0.5m deep and lay directly above the natural clay.
A small number of archaeologically-significant features were exposed, including three small pits and three ditches - none of which produced any dating evidence. A former pond was also observed.
The pits were all undated shallow, truncated features with dark grey, charcoal-flecked fills. One also contained a thin layer of charcoal-rich material but none showed any evidence for in situ burning. The pond is marked on the late 19th-century 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map and was a visible landscape feature until relatively recently. Two of the ditches extended from the pond are also relatively recently, corresponding with field boundaries that were extant until at least the mid 20th-century. The third ditch was an undated north-to-south aligned feature identified in the south-west corner of the site.
No unstratified finds were recovered.
See report (S2) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.68).
P. Watkins (HES), 24 August 2020.