NHER 64590 (Monument record) - Possible site of medieval manor and multi-period remains

November 2015. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of large proposed development area.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 5 May 2023.

August 2017-March 2018. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of possible development area.
This survey of the western and central parts of the field identified a cluster of positive, linear and discrete anomalies at TM 2023 9299, roughly 130m north of Edge’s Lane. These are likely to represent sub-surfaces remains associated with some form of former settlement. Some of the longer linear anomalies may have defined a rectilinear enclosure and the smaller anomalies are likely to represent infilled features such as pits and gullies. The more notable discrete anomalies include three associated with weak positive signal that are likely to represent shallow sub-rectangular features between 8m and 10m long. The majority of the anomalies in this cluster appear to have lain within some form of encircling ditch or moat, represented by a faint curvilinear anomaly, the line of which is continued to the north by an extant curving section of drainage ditch. Linear anomalies suggest that the western side of this roughly circular enclosure lay at least 10m to the west of the extant boundary. The entrance to the enclosure most likely lay to the south-west, at the point where a gap is visible and it is met by a short north-west to south-east aligned linear anomaly. The tithe appointment suggests that this enclosure and the features within were associated with a medieval manorial complex, the field containing them being recorded as 'Manor Yards (105)'. It was apparently suggested by the landowner that this could be the site of Welham’s Manor, which is one of several now abandoned medieval manors listed by Blomefield in his discussion of the parish (S2). It should though be noted that a site approximately 720m to the south-east has been identified, albeit very tentatively, as a possible site for Welham’s Manor (NHER 16608). The newly discovered site is also not far from the triangular strip of former common land known as Rhees Green and must therefore also be considered as potentially associated with Ree’s Manor, a brief history of which is given by Blomefield, but without any mention of where the capital messuage had probably lain.
It is noted that the rectangular anomalies are reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon sunken-feature buildings, at least raising the possibility that this was a multi-period site.
An interconnected network of straight positive linear anomalies identified elsewhere in the field represents the remains of a post-medieval field-system, these responses all corresponding with former field boundaries depicted on the Stratton St Michael Tithe map of 1838 (S3). The small number of potentially earlier ditches are all parallel with and/or clearly associated with boundaries present in the 19th-century. These potentially medieval to earlier post-medieval boundaries include several north-north-east to south-south-west aligned features that appear to truncate the circular enclosure and the features within. No discrete features of obvious archaeological significance were identified elsewhere in the field.
Groups of parallel weakly positive, regularly-spaced linear anomalies almost certainly represent field drains of post-medieval or later date. Many of the scatter discrete magnetic spikes were probably caused by ferrous objects in the topsoil – most likely modern debris.
See report (S4) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2021.

August-November 2020. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of site on proposed route of A140 Long Stratton Bypass (Trenches 44-64).
The 21 trenches excavated at this location revealed a number of scattered linear and discrete features. Several of the ditches uncovered were clearly associated with former field boundaries depicted on the Stratton St Michael Tithe map of 1838 (S3), all of which had been identified by the preceding geophysical survey. One of these ditches contained a rotten wooden post and barbed wire, demonstrating that some of these ditches had been open until relatively recently. Many of the other ditches, pits and possible post-holes recorded produced little in the way of dating evidence, with the notable exceptions all lying within the two northernmost trenches. These included an east-north-east to west-south-west aligned ditch that contained two Roman pottery sherds and a small quantity of residual Early Iron Age pottery. A single sherd Roman pottery was also recovered from a narrow east-to-west aligned linear feature to the east. Several pits were also recorded in this part of the site, two of which produced pottery of probable 11th-century date. A sample taken from one of these pits contained charcoal and a small number of charred cereal grains (one identifiable as wheat).
The undated features identified elsewhere in this field included two pits with charcoal-rich fills and a north-east to south-west ditch at TM 2049 9317 that corresponded with one of the geophysical anomalies likely to represent an earlier field boundary.
None of the trenches excavated in the southernmost part of the site revealed archaeological remains, which is consistent with the results of the geophysical survey and confirms that the medieval settlement identified to the south of Edge’s Lane (NHER 64589) did not extend to the north of this road.
See report (S5) for further information and NHER 68109 for details of various unstratified finds recovered during this work (for which the report gives no locational information).
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2021.2).
P. Watkins (HES), 20 February 2024. Amended 24 August 2025.