NHER 64068 (Monument record) - Buried remains of Town Wall, 17 Littleport Street

Previously recorded under NHER 5486.

February-April 2012. Watching Brief.
Monitoring and recording confirmed the line of a section of the medieval town wall and identified deposits relating to its demolition. The wall was aligned approximately north-south and was constructed of roughly coursed flint cobbles, carstone and limestone. The remaining wall fragment was 2.5m long, 0.6m wide and stood to a height of just 0.15m. Either side of the wall were dumped demolition deposits comprising grey mortar with brick fragments and flint cobbles. This was overlain by a widespread dumped deposit of crushed grey mortar, flint cobbles and limestone fragments which also included a fragment of a 17th-18th century glass vessel, 18th-19th century pottery sherds and post-medieval brick.
It is unknown whether the section of wall revealed during these works was of medieval origin or a later repair. No evidence was revealed for the date when this section of the town wall was demolished but the dumped deposits overlying the remains of the wall suggest that this had taken place by the 18th century.
See report (S1) for details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2013.92).
E. Bales (HES), 27 August 2012. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 16 May 2019.

It seems possible that the demolition of this section of Town Wall may have coincided with the construction of 17 Littleport Street (NHER 46577) on this plot, which dates from the early 18th century. Looking at the shape of the plot it seems likely that this section of wall was removed in order to enlarge the garden to the east of the property. The line of Littleport Street appears straight on Rastrick's map of 1725 (S3), and it is possible that the curvature of the road at this location also relates to the demolition of this section of the wall.
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 12 March 2020.