A Programme of Post-Determination Archaeological Trial-Trenching and Excavation (Combined Report)

mitigation excavation carried out by Pre-Construct Archaeology on Land at Repps Road, Martham, Norfolk, NR29 4RW (TG 44882 17404). The evaluation took place between the 26th and 29th May 2020 and the excavation was undertaken from the 1st to the 11th September 2020. The evaluation identified archaeological remains across the site in the form of ditches, pits, and postholes. Many of these features produced no finds, making dating tentative at best for the majority of features encountered, although their similar alignment to a series of Iron Age crop marks to the south west and west of the site provided some context to their probable date. A system of ditches on a broadly NE-SW alignment were exposed in seven of the nine trenches across the site, some correlating with features previously identified by geophysical survey. These appeared to be probable piecemeal enclosure boundaries of late medieval or post-medieval date, on a similar alignment to an earlier system. A second, earlier system of ditches was also revealed in Trench 4 in the north of the site on a NE-SW and also NW-SE alignment of possible Iron Age date. Several sherds of Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pottery suggested a possible Iron Age date for this field system, which aligns with cropmarks in the surrounding area to the north of the site also of possible Iron Age date. In Trench 3 to the south-west of the likely Iron Age ditch a pit was revealed containing charcoal, burnt flint and pottery and a nearby probable hearth or firepit with rounded stones set in the base. These features produced fragments of pottery of Iron Age date and were indications for likely domestic activity nearby.