NHER 66823 (Monument record) - Saxo-Norman to early medieval and undated remains

March 2021. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The four trenches excavated revealed a number of linear and discrete features, the majority of which appear to have been of Saxo-Norman to early medieval date. Evidence for earlier activity was limited to a small assemblage of predominantly Early Neolithic worked flints, all of which were residual in later contexts.
Potentially the earliest features were a substantial pit and a possible north-west to south-east aligned ditch that both contained small quantities of Saxo-Norman pottery. Exclusively early medieval pottery was recovered from a number of other features including several adjacent north-east to south-west aligned ditches and a substantial probable extraction pit. A single sherd of early medieval pottery was also recovered from a flat-based rectangular feature thought to be potentially structural. Other finds from these features included animal bone and several fragments of lava quern. Samples taken from three of the potentially Saxo-Norman to early medieval features all produced significant densities of material indicative of domestic waste, including charcoal, charred cereal grains and probable weed seeds, fish bones and chicken and goose eggshell fragments. The charred grains are predominantly rye and hulled barley with some oats and free-threshing wheat also noted – all of which is consistent with a Late Saxon/early medieval date for this activity.
There was little evidence for significant subsequent activity on the site, with only a single sherd of high medieval pottery recovered (from another probable extraction pits). It is though suggested that a number of parallel linear features in the central part of the site might represent the traces of medieval or early post-medieval ridge and furrow cultivation.
Post-medieval finds were limited to a single unstratified pottery sherd and a button within what was probably an early medieval ditch.
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 12 March 2023.