NHER 66661 (Monument record) - Iron Age to Roman remains and associated evidence for salt production

April 2014. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of potential archaeological impact of proposed development.
This study highlights the potential for the site to contain remains of prehistoric and Roman date.
See report (S1) for further details, including detailed map regression.
P. Watkins (HES), 18 January 2022.

January 2016. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of part of large proposed development area (Trenches 11 and 12).
Two trenches were excavated at this location, which revealed a number of ditches. The most notable of these were an adjacent pair of north-west to south-east aligned features at TG 5144 1393, which potentially represented the continuation of ditches associated with extensive linear cropmarks mapped in the field to the east (part of a group recorded as NHER 27402). One of these ditches produced several pottery sherds of mid- to late-1st century date, which is consistent with the Late Iron Age to Roman date suggested for much of the cropmark group. It also suggests that these features were contemporary with ditches excavated in the field to the west of Yarmouth Road, a number of which produced early Roman pottery of a similar date (see NHER 66660).
Three undated ditches were also recorded, two aligned north-north-east to south-south-west and one at the northern edge of the site aligned east-to-west. The orientations of these features suggests that they possibly associated with a much more recent phase of activity.
Information from draft report.
P. Watkins (HES), 19 January 2023.

June-August 2016. Excavation.
This final phase of archaeological mitigation prior to development saw the excavation of the southern half of this site, where the proceeding work had revealed a pair of potentially early ditches.
A number of ditches were exposed, all of which appear to be have been associated with a later Iron Age to early Roman phase of activity - making them contemporary with extensive remains exposed during further excavations to the west (see NHER 66660). The earliest features included a pair of parallel east-to-west aligned ditches, one of which produced a large assemblage of handmade later Iron Age pottery (300+ sherds) and numerous fragments of animal bone (mostly recovered as a result of sieving). Significantly, this feature also contained a sizable quantity of what appeared to be structural briquetage. This probably came from a nearby saltern (salt production site), being likely to represent debris from a structure used to heat large pans of brine. Such a structure was revealed at the site to the west, where a range of other Iron Age to Roman features were also found to contain fragments of briquetage.
All of the other ditches at this location were part of a complex group of intercutting north-to-south and north-west to south-east aligned features, at least two of which turned through 90 degrees at this point. The earliest features in this sequence were also potentially Iron Age, while the latest produced early Roman pottery. Although some pottery of possible Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age date was also recovered this was mostly residual within later features. As at the site to the west none of the pottery appears to post-date the 1st century AD, suggesting that activity may well have largely ceased by the early 2nd century. Additional fragments of briquetage were recovered from several of the potentially early Roman features, including a pit.
As noted above, the north-west to south-east aligned features are likely to be associated with the similarly-aligned cropmarks recorded to the east, which are part of a larger group thought to represent remains of predominantly Iron Age to Roman date (NHER 27402).
See assessment report (S2) for further details. Final reports awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 13 February 2023.