NHER 65229 (Monument record) - Medieval and later deposits and post-medieval structural remains

October-December 2010. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with redevelopment of former lecture hall adjacent to Middlegate Congregational Church (NHER 25534). These works all took place within the retained elements of this late 19th-century structure.
The groundworks were primarily focused on the removal of structures immediately beneath the floor level of the building, including cellars and elements of a 19th-century underfloor heating system. Across much of the site the only deposit disturbed was a post-medieval demolition layer comprising a loose mix of rubble and silt.
Notable remains exposed included a reasonably substantial north-east to south-west aligned flint and brick wall that was present along the full length of the extant building. Towards its north-eastern end it was observed to comprise handmade bricks and a flint rubble core. The bricks were seen as indicative of an early post-medieval date, although unfortunately no samples was retained for specialist analysis. There was also a degree of variation to its form, with the south-westernmost section found to be comprised almost entirely of flint pebbles, with only small fragments of brick visible. Here a section of a parallel and presumably contemporary flint wall was revealed on the opposite side of the room. Several brick walls were also noted in this room, at least some of which may represent elements of the building that had occupied the site prior to the late 19th century (i.e. that which is shown on (S1)). A surviving fragment of a brick floor exposed beneath the rubble and silt layer in the north-easternmost room was also potentially associated with this earlier building. The removal of a 19th-century cellar in this room provided an opportunity to record the sequences of silty sand and clay deposits that lay beneath both the post-medieval debris and the flint wall. It was possible to record two disconnected sequences of deposits. Behind one of the walls the earliest deposit exposed was a dark brown silt sand, which was overlain by a layer of yellow sand. The former produced a fragment of heavily burnt post-medieval glazed roof tile, several sherds of medieval pottery and of single late medieval/early post-medieval sherd. All of the pottery was heavily abraded and therefore probably redeposited. These layers were interleaved with thin layers of brown silt and were regarded as possible flood deposits. The deposit sequence behind the second wall was notably different, with the lowest deposit exposed being a reasonably thick layer of crushed chalk.
During this work it was observed that the south-western façade of the former lecture hall had been replaced and some time and had probably originally lain closer to the road. The underfloor heating system removed as part of these works comprised a network of brick channels that were 0.6m deep, 0.55m wide and capped with stone slabs.
Unstratrified finds included part of a post-medieval Frechen stoneware Bartmann jug with applied mask.
See report (S2) for further details.
The archive associated with this work is believed to have been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.153).
P. Watkins (HES) 2 August 2021.