NHER 66880 (Monument record) - ?Prehistoric pits and other, undated remains

January 2016. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site (Phase 1; Trenches 1-20).
The twenty trenches excavated as part of this initial phase of work revealed a number of pits and ditches. Although no datable artefacts were found during the excavation of these features a small number of finds were recovered from bulk samples. These objects include four sherds of handmade prehistoric pottery of possible Early Neolithic or Middle/Late Bronze Age date, which all came from a pit at the western end of the site. A flint bladelet of possible Mesolithic date was also recovered from this feature. The sample from this feature produced no plant macrofossils but was found to contain fragments of coal and slag, along with a small amount probable hammerscale from ironworking (suggesting that the prehistoric finds were potentially residual). The only other discrete feature of note was a pit in the eastern half of the site that was found to contain a single sherd of probable Early/Middle Iron Age pottery. This was though also potentially residual as the sample from this feature also produced a small amount of iron hammerscale and two iron nails thought to be of relatively recent date. Small quantities of probable hammerscale was also present in samples taken from two other, undated pits. It is noted that the charcoal from one of these features consists entirely of oak, with one fragment displaying signs of vitrification.
The ditches recorded were mostly aligned either north-west to south-east or north-east to south-west. None produced any dating evidence, although their orientation are notably similar to those of the surrounding extant field boundaries and the former boundaries shown on the available 19th-century maps. It is therefore likely that the majority were also of relatively recent date.
See report (S1) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2021.35).
P. Watkins (HES), 4 May 2023.