NHER 68331 (Monument record) - Potentially Roman, medieval/post-medieval and undated remains

November 2022-April 2023. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with installation of new water main (Area 6). This section of the pipeline was subject to archaeological monitoring as it crossed a field where a number of linear cropmarks are visible on aerial photographs (all recorded under NHER 49215). The excavation of two directional-drilling pits - one at each end of the site - was also monitored.
The initial stripping of topsoil from this section of the working easement revealed only a pair of ditches at the western end of the site, but the subsequent excavation of a narrower trench through the remaining overburden exposed an additional group of ditches at the eastern end of the site and a number of scattered pits.
The majority of the excavated features produced little in the way of dating evidence. Two notable exceptions were an adjacent pair of roughly north-to-south aligned ditches towards the eastern end of the site that both contained small amounts of Roman pottery. Other features of possible Roman date included two widely dispersed pits in the central part of the site, both of which produced single sherds of Roman pottery. One also contained fragments of fired clay, including a piece of possible oven/kiln lining. Samples taken the fills of these features and the two potentially Roman ditches all produced small quantities of wood charcoal but little elsewhere in the way of charred plant macrofossils or other remains.
The only other feature to produce any datable finds was an east-to-west aligned ditch at the far eastern end of the site that contained large pieces of medieval/post-medieval brick. At its western end this feature met a fairly substantial north-to-south aligned ditch likely to coincide with one of the previously mapped cropmarks, but unfortunately this intersection was only partly exposed so their exact relationship is uncertain. Unfortunately the north-to-south aligned ditch contained only an undatable iron object and two adjacent parallel ditches also produced no finds.
A pair of adjoining and presumably contemporary north-north-west to south-south-east aligned ditches recorded at the western end of the site also produced no dating evidence. Another undated north-north-west to south-south-east ditch was exposed in a directional drilling pit immediately to the west of these features. This feature was probably associated with another of the previously recorded cropmarks.
A single Roman coin was the only unstratified find recovered at this location.
See report (S1) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2023.4). This archive does not include the finds, which have been retained by the landowner.
P. Watkins (HES), 20 May 2024. Amended 7 January 2025 and 5 March 2025.