NHER 63138 (Monument record) - Potentially Bronze Age ditches

August 2017. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of southern portion of proposed development site (it was not possible to examine an overgrown area to the north).
This survey identified a number of linear anomalies likely to represent the remains of ditches. Two are almost certainly modern features, these corresponding with two former field boundaries that do not appear to have been created until the latter half of the 20th century. Two weaker linear anomalies on different alignments may though indicate the presence of earlier ditches.
Also noted were weak, ephemeral ploughing trends running parallel to the modern field boundaries.
No discrete anomalies of possible archaeological significance were identified.
The south-westernmost part of the survey area is dominated by ferrous disturbance that is probably associated with buildings and landscaping in the vicinity of Beech Lodge.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 December 2018.

September 2017. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of proposed development site.
The site was deemed to be of limited archaeological potential.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 December 2018.

October 2018. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site (including area inaccessible during initial geophysical survey).
The 17 trenches revealed relatively few archaeological features. The two weaker linear anomalies identified by the geophysical survey were however both found to be associated with ditches. A prehistoric date can be tentatively suggested for these features as finds were limited to four sherds of later Bronze Age pottery and two undiagnostic worked flints of Neolithic to Early Bronze date. Samples taken from the fills of both ditches were found to contain small amounts of charcoal but little else of note. The available evidence therefore suggests that these ditches most likely represented land divisions or field boundaries that potentially lay some way from any contemporary settlement focus.
Linear features observed in a number of trenches are thought to have represented surviving traces of medieval cultivation. One of these probable furrows produced a sherd of medieval pottery.
A single worked flint of Neolithic to Early Bronze Age date was the only unstratified find recovered during this work.
See report (S3) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2018.247)
P. Watkins (HES), 3 December 2018. Amended 19 June 2020.

November 2018. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of previously unexamined area at northern end of site.
This survey revealed no potentially archaeologically-significant anomalies.
A large area of magnetic disturbance is thought to represent an area of modern made ground.
Other areas of magnetic disturbance around the margins of the field and scattered discrete dipolar anomalies were probably caused by ferrous material in the topsoil (most likely modern debris).
See report (S4) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 30 July 2021.