NHER 61907 (Monument record) - Probably Early Saxon sunken featured building and other medieval to post-medieval and undated features

November 2013. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
Eight of the 12 trenches excavated revealed archaeologically significant remains.
Arguably the most significant feature was a possible Early Saxon sunken-featured building (Grubenhaus) that was partially exposed in the northern part of the site. This feature had a flat base, steep sides and contained at least one post-hole. Finds recovered included Early Saxon pottery sherds and smithing slag. Although no other features could be convincingly dated as Early Saxon it is possible that at least some of the undated remains in this part of the site were associated with this phase of activity, including a pit (which produced a single sherd of Iron Age or Early Saxon pottery), a post-hole and a gully.
This work also revealed a number of ditches, including three east-to-west aligned features that appear to correspond with previously identified cropmark of probable medieval to post-medieval date (NHER 49263). An east-to-west aligned ditch present in two trenches in the central part of the site would have formed the southern side of a one of several enclosures visible as cropmarks on the south side of School Road. A ditch in the north-west corner of the site appears to correspond with a parallel shorter cropmark identified within the bounds of the larger enclosure. Unfortunately no dating evidence was recovered from either feature, although the sterile nature of their fills is in itself notable. Another east-to-west aligned ditch identified a little way to the south corresponds with both a previously identified cropmark and a boundary marked on 19th-century maps of the site. A number of post-medieval finds were recovered from the slots excavated across this ditch. The corresponding field boundary was not removed until the second half of the 20th century.
A number of undated ditches identified elsewhere on the site had markedly different alignments from the features visible as cropmarks and were presumably associated with at least one earlier phase of activity.
Two obviously modern pits identified close to school road may have been associated with activity during World War Two, when this location was the site of a domestic or ancillary site associated with Ludham airfield (NHER 8456) - see NHER 49297 for further details.
A trench that crossed the line of a previously identified large cropmark ring-ditch (NHER 49262) failed to identify any evidence for a corresponding sub-surface feature.
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.219).
P. Watkins (HES), 31 October 2016. Amended 19 May 2019.