NHER 64441 (Monument record) - Potentially medieval hollow way and other, medieval to post-medieval features

January-June 2018. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of residential dwellings and detached garages.
The various footing trenches excavated exposed several features, the most notable of which was a very wide west-south-west to east-north-east aligned linear feature interpreted as a hollow way. This feature corresponds with the route of a former trackway shown running between Church Farm and the Hargham Road on the late 19th-century 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map but is probably of much earlier origin. This is suggest both by its form and the fact that it appears to correspond with a linear cropmark associated with earthwork features believed to represent an area of deserted settlement around St Peter's Church (NHER 57468). It is therefore likely that this was originally a medieval route way (potentially leading to St Peter’s Church itself), the line of which had subsequently been reused when Church Farm was built during the 19th century. The hollow identified during this work had been deliberately infilled with redeposited sand, presumably when the track to Church Farm was removed during the latter half of the 20th century.
The other features recorded were a large pit of possible medieval to post-medieval date, a smaller, undated pit and a ditch likely to correspond with a boundary marked on 19th-century maps.
Unstratified finds included a single prehistoric worked flint and two sherds of medieval pottery.
See report (S1) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2018.106) [1].
P. Watkins (HES), 30 August 2020.