NHER 67582 (Monument record) - Undated human remains and post-medieval deposits

October 2012. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with construction of new residential dwelling and associated detached garage.
At the eastern end of the site a steep bank was cut back to create space for the garage and a new retaining wall. Clean sand was exposed at the base of the resultant vertical section, overlain by a dumped deposit of mixed grey brown silty sand. Various modern finds were recovered in this area and it is possible that at least some of this material was deposited as recently as 2003 - when extensive terracing and landscaping works are known to have taken place. A particularly notable find from this area was part of a human femur, although it wasn’t entirely clear whether this was derived from the dumped material or had fallen from a nearby topsoil deposit. This bone was from a juvenile (probably of early teenage year) and retrieved close to where part of a human skull had been found in 2005 (NHER 41843). Surface weathering and green staining were noted on both bones and it is highly likely they were from the same burial. It is possible that these bones were deposited along with the soil dumped here in 2003, although their condition suggests they probably came from a nearby inhumation that had been exposed to weathering by the collapse of part of the sandy cliff.
Many of the deposits recorded within the footing trenches clearly related to the now demolished house that had previously occupied the site. This building is labelled as 'The Wilderness' on the Ordnance Survey First Edition 25-inch map (S1) and the brick and tile present suggests it had been of 18th- or 19th-century date.
The only evidence for earlier activity on the site was a layer of probable dumped material containing fragments of ceramic building material and animal bone. A single sherd of late medieval/early post-medieval pottery was recovered from this deposit.
Peat and gravel deposits were observed at the base of a much deeper trench excavated for a septic tank – demonstrating the natural deposits at this low lying site are overlain by a considerably depth of 'made ground'.
Information from draft report. Final version awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 20 November 2023.