NHER 809 (Find Spot record) - Undated pits, 20-21 Royal Arcade

June-July 1986. Watching Brief.
During restoration, excavation undertaken 2m south of Arcade itself within Nos 20/21.
Here a pit 2m square was cut to a depth of around 2.80m. Much of the upper deposits consisted of rubble but the bottom 0.50m+ consisted of a mid-brown moist loam. This was very homogeneous with very few flints but common chalk flecks and fairly common charcoal flecks. This deposit was not bottomed.
A sample was taken and analysed by Peter Murphy (held by NAU). Regrettably the analysis gave no indication of how deposit was formed. Could be a flovelloam or inwashed material from eroded earthworks.
A second such pit inside No.19 to west, immediately adjacent to the side entrance to the Arcade, was disturbed to some 2m depth by foundations of the building. However, at a similar depth to the pit in Nos 20/21 the deposits was seen again and once again was not bottomed.
The finds recovered are now held by the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 1998.23).