NHER 68291 (Monument record) - Iron Age pit and other, undated and post-medieval to modern remains

August 2022. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
The 34 trenches excavated revealed a number of a scattered ditches, pits and possible post-holes. Several of these features were clearly associated with relatively recent activity but the majority of the remainder were undated, with very few finds recovered. One notable excavation was a sub-circular pit in the western field with a layer of charcoal-rich material at its base and charcoal and small fragments of fired clay in its main fill. Samples of the charcoal within this pit were found to consist primarily of oak sapwood, although fragments of hazel and alder/hazel were also noted. As there was no evidence for in-situ burning this material is thought to probably represent dumped fire debris. Although no finds were recovered from this feature a sample of the oak charcoal produced a later Iron Age date of 339-46 cal BC at 95.4% probability (Beta-643087; 2110 ± 30 BP). There was no other direct evidence for activity on the site at this time, although it is possible that a number of other undated pits with charcoal-rich fills were of a similar age.
The features of post-medieval date included two north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditches that both correspond with former field boundaries shown on the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six-inch map (S1). These contained a number of post-medieval to modern finds, including a pottery sherd and fragments of ceramic building material. A post-medieval tile fragment was also recovered from a similarly-aligned ditch at the western edge of the western field.
It is possible that some of the undated ditches were also post-medieval, although the alignments of a number suggest they were almost certainly associated with at least one earlier field system.
A large feature exposed in the eastern field corresponds with a water-filled pond or former quarry shown on the early Ordnance Survey maps. This produced finds of post-medieval or later date and material of a similarly-recent date was recovered from another large feature encountered in the north-west corner of the western field.
No unstratified finds were recovered.
See report (S2) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2022.158).
P. Watkins (HES), 26 April 2024.