NHER 61933 (Monument record) - Post-medieval pits and Late Saxon to post-medieval finds

July 2015. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of large proposed development site.
The thirteen trenches excavated revealed a number of archaeologically significant remains, although it appears that most, if not all, of these features were of post-medieval or later date. Evidence for activity on the site prior to the late medieval period was limited to a small number of Late Saxon pottery sherds that were residual in post-medieval deposits.
A waste pit identified in the north-eastern part of the site was potentially the earliest feature excavated, producing pottery consistent with a 16th-century date and a number of medieval bricks and tiles. Several later brick and tile fragments were also present, suggesting that at least some of the debris in this feature probably resulted from the demolition of a late medieval structure at some point during the post-medieval period. The presence of bricks and a Flemish floor tile suggests that a church or a structure of moderate to high status was possibly the source of the medieval material. The pit also contained a large amount of animal bone, including the complete skeleton of an elderly horse. A single sample taken from the fill of this feature produced a small assemblage of material, all of which is likely to have been derived from domestic hearth waste.
Several trenches exposed late 18th- to 19th-centutry waste pits and several probable quarry pits of 19th-century date were also identified.
An undated pit produced none of the post-medieval waste seen in the majority of the other excavated features and may therefore have been a relatively early feature, although it is also suggested that this may have been a Second World War bomb crater.
This evaluation demonstrated that there had been significant past truncation of the site, although the impact of this was less dramatic in the areas where deeper topsoil and subsoil deposits had been present.
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.314).
P. Watkins (HES), 2 November 2016. Amended 27 May 2019.