NHER 67881 (Monument record) - ?Prehistoric, post-medieval and undated features

December 2019. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
All but one of the 10 trenches excavated revealed archaeologically-significant remains, although these were mostly linear features of uncertain date. One notable exception was a circular pit with a dark, charcoal-rich primary fill that contained numerous burnt flints and produced a small assemblage of worked flints of possible Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date. A sample taken from this potentially prehistoric feature was also found to contain fragments of hazelnut shell and burnt bone.
Few other features could be convincingly dated, the majority producing little or no dating evidence. The small number of finds recovered including two additional worked flints, small amounts of undatable prehistoric and medieval pottery, several fragments of post-medieval ceramic building material and a post-medieval iron horseshoe.
The various linear features displayed a variety of alignments, suggesting that they were potentially associated with up to three distinct phases of activity. The north-to-south aligned features were probably post-medieval, this being the alignment of a series of parallel field boundaries depicted on an 1840s Tithe map. Although the other features are presumed to represent earlier phases of land division their date remains uncertain and at least some may have also been post-medieval.
Two large pits - interpreted as quarries due to their size - are also thought to have been associated with post-medieval activity, although finds were limited to two sherds of medieval pottery. The finds recovered do at least suggest that a number of the scattered post-holes recorded were post-medieval, while others were probably associated with the site’s recent use as a school playing field.
Information from draft report. Final version awaited.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2020.2).
P. Watkins (HES), 28 December 2023. Amended 24 August 2025.