NHER 65438 (Monument record) - Undated cremation burial and other, Roman, post-medieval and undated remains

August-September 2015. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of part of large proposed development area. Two phase of work saw the excavation of 12 trenches at this location - eight in the central southern part of the site (Trenches 41-48) and four close to its northern edge (Trenches 37-40 - previously recorded under NHER 65437).

The group of eight trenches excavated in the southern part of the site revealed three ditches, one of which was a north-to-south aligned feature that almost certainly corresponds with a former field boundary depicted on the Attleborough tithe map of 1838 (S1). A roughly perpendicular ditch to the south was potentially of a similar age, although no associated features are marked on the available 19th-century maps. The only find recovered was though an iron horseshoe of medieval or post-medieval date. It should also be noted that the alignment of this ditch is also identical to that of a linear earthwork known as ‘Bunn’s Bank’ (NHER 9206), which lay immediately to the south. There was however no trace of the earthwork feature itself (the location of which has been mapped from aerial photographs) in either of the two trenches that coincided with its line. In both cases the topsoil lay immediately above the natural sandy clay.
The third ditch was an unexcavated north-north-east to south-south-west aligned feature recorded in a trench that lay entirely within the mapped location of the earthwork bank. Although this was thought to be a continuation of the post-medieval ditch recorded to the north the alignments of these features and the cartographic evidence suggest this was unlikely.
Unstratified finds were limited to a post-medieval lead cloth seal.

The four trenches excavated close to the northern edge of the site revealed no archaeologically-significant features or deposits.
Unstratified finds were limited to a Roman coin and a post-medieval rivet, both of which were recovered from topsoil contexts.

Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 1 March 2022. Amended 10 October 2024.

February-March 2022. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of proposed development area (Field 5).
This survey identified a number of fragmentary east-to-west aligned linear anomalies at the southern edge of the field that potentially relate to the linear earthwork known as Bunn's Bank – a section of which is visible as an earthwork at this location (NHER 9206). A number of other linear anomalies clearly correspond with former field boundaries depicted on the Attleborough tithe map (S1).
A north-east to south-west aligned line of dipolar anomalies possibly represents a series of pit-type features or (most likely) a modern service.
Other anomalies were of probable natural origin, being most likely the results of changes in the underlying soils and geology.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 October 2024.

March-July 2023. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development area (Trenches 55-61, 67-80 and 92-109).
The 39 trenches excavated at this location revealed a number of scattered linear and discrete features, the most notable of which was the truncated remains of an unurned cremation burial.
There was some limited evidence for prehistoric activity, with a number Neolithic to Iron Age and Bronze Age/Iron Age worked flints recovered, along with a single Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery sherd. This sherd came from an otherwise undated pit or ditch terminus that contained fragments of fired clay and animal bone and a piece of possible iron metalworking debris (cinder).
Later features included a pit containing a reasonably large assemblage of Roman pottery, a sample from the fill of which was found to contain abundant charcoal and fragments of animal bone.
Although the cremation burial produced no dating evidence it truncated a layer that contained several Roman pottery sherds and fragments of a possible Roman bracelet. The location of this burial at the western edge of the site means it was close to a concentration of Roman remains identified at the eastern end of the field to the west (NHER 55760). The more diagnostic elements of the surviving cremated bone suggest this was possibly the remains of an older immature/adolescent individual.
A number of post-medieval features were identified, including a cluster of probable clay extraction pits in the south-east part of the site and several ditches that correspond with former field boundaries shown on the Attleborough tithe map (S1).
The undated features included a pair of intercutting north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditches at the western end of the site that were potentially associated with a similarly aligned cropmark mapped at this location (part of a group of undated cropmarks and earthworks recorded as NHER 33951.
There was no evidence for surviving remains associated with Bunn's Bank (NHER 9206).
See report (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 October 2024.