NHER 58248 (Monument record) - Medieval to post-medieval remains

March 2012. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
This work revealed a range of features of probable medieval to post-medieval date, including ditches, a gully, pits and post holes. Although a small amount of Late Saxon to early medieval pottery was recovered, these sherds were mostly residual within later contexts. The only exceptions were two small sherds recovered from an otherwise undated post-hole.
Features in the southernmost of the two trenches excavated included medieval to post-medieval ditches probably associated with boundaries or drainage for historic properties fronting onto Town Green. These remains were sealed by an 18th-century levelling deposit, which may be associated with the construction of the building at 7 Town Green (NHER 48585), and was overlain by a tile surface which appears to correlate to an outbuilding depicted on the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six-inch map (S1). The northern trench contained two large pits which may have begun as quarry pits and were used to deposit domestic refuse during the 15th and 16th centuries. The refuse included imported pottery, evidence of varied and good quality cuts of meat, and building material from a tiled roof and brick floor indicating high status occupation in the area. One of the pits was cut by a footing for a building likely constructed sometime between the 15th/16th century and the construction of 7 Town Green (NHER 48585) in 1760. Other notable finds recovered from the excavated pits include fragments of medieval stained glass and a roughly cube-shaped piece of architectural limestone with one finished edge (probably Kentish ragstone). This stone must have come from a building of some status and is of particular interest as it is partially heat reddened and therefore possibly from a structure affected by the fire of 1615.
See report (S2) for further details.
An associated archive has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.147).
H. Hamilton (HES), 15 November 2012. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 14 May 2024.

July 2021. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site immediately to east of area investigated in 2012.
The single trench excavated revealed a number of pits and ditches, the majority of which were of probable medieval or post-medieval date.
Evidence for earlier activity included a small assemblage of prehistoric worked flints, the bulk of which were recovered from an otherwise undated pit. These flints include a blade of probable Early Neolithic date and it is likely that at least some of the other pieces are of a similar date. A sample from this feature was found to contained only two charred barley grains.
The later features included a large pit that produced a small assemblage of high medieval pottery, a single residual Late Saxon sherd, fragments of animal bone and several iron objects. A sample from this feature contained material likely to represent debris from domestic activity, including charcoal, charred grains of hulled barley and free-threshing wheat and the seeds of arable weeds.
The ditches recorded included two adjacent north-west to south-east aligned features, one or both of which were potentially the continuation of similarly-aligned features uncovered during the earlier work to the west. One of these ditches contained a piece of dressed flint with mortar adhering and several post-medieval brick and tile fragments but the other was undated. A partially exposed feature that appeared to be a north-east to south-west aligned ditch was also recorded. Finds recovered from this possible ditch included post-medieval pottery and an iron buckle or medieval or post-medieval date. A sample from this feature contained a piece of pine-type wood, which is also indicative of a post-medieval date.
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 14 May 2024.