NHER 65244 (Monument record) - Medieval to post-medieval features

February 2016. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The three trenches excavated revealed several features of probable medieval to post-medieval date.
Potentially the earliest was a shallow pit that produced a small assemblage of medieval pottery and a single sherd of late medieval/early post-medieval date. The medieval pottery includes a sherd from an excellent example of a Grimston ware face jug. This feature was uncovered close to where a concentration of medieval and post-medieval pottery and other debris had been identified during a systematic fieldwalking survey undertaken in 1984 (NHER 20157 Context 2).
To the south of the pit was a substantial linear feature that appears to have corresponded with a former field boundary that is depicted on a 19th century tithe map and present as an extant landscape feature until the early 20th century. This defined part of a field of irregular, rounded form, suggesting it may represent the fossilised outline of a much earlier field or enclosure. The southern side of the excavated feature was stepped, which was probably the result of periodic recutting. Its fills produced a mixed finds assemblage comprising 14 medieval pottery sherds, a single late medieval/early post-medieval pottery sherd, eight small brick fragments and an unidentifiable iron object. It also contained that the partial remains of juvenile sheep/goat. Although the brick fragments have been identified as probably post-medieval, the lack of post-medieval pottery is potentially notable, as it the lack of anything of definite late post-medieval date.
A second, much smaller, east-to-west aligned ditch produced pottery sherds of late medieval/early post medieval and post-medieval date. This feature was therefore probably associated with a post-medieval boundary, though not one that appears on the available 19th-centuty maps.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 10 August 2021.