NHER 779 (Monument record) - Trial excavation of city wall, River Lane/Barrack Street

19-23 January 1987. Trial Trenching.
Trial excavation directed by B. S. Ayers (NAU) was undertaken by J. E. Bown (NAU) and J. Huddle (NAU) for the Norfolk Archaeological Unit and Anglian Water.
The work demonstrated that:
1. That those parts of a turret (23563 09305) visible above ground level next to the River Wensum are of modern construction, but that
2. They overlie the buried remains of the turret which has an entrance doorway dressed in brick with a brick-on-edge threshold.
3. The city wall has been much refaced, not always on the correct alignment, wall core being faced at one point giving the impression that the wall steps inward when, in fact, excavated evidence shows that it continues in a straight line (23563 09307).
4. The city wall extends to a depth of some 2.3m at a point some 20m north of the river (23553 09340) with associated undisturbed archaeological deposits extending at least 3m east of the interior face of the wall.
Report circulated to Anglian Water and HBMC.
Copy held by NAU.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2020.79). It includes plan (S2), sections, black/white photographs and colour slides.
Excavation details in plan.
See report (S1) for further details.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 19 June 2020.