St Mary's Church, Church Road, Itteringham, Norfolk. Archaeological Monitoring and Recording

Archaeological attendance on land at St Mary's Church, Church Road, Itteringham, Norfolk was required in order to monitor the partial removal, by mechanical excavator, of a low linear bank which currently forms the north boundary of the churchyard. The removal of a small section of the bank was undertaken to facilitate access to an extension of the churchyard located north of the boundary currently formed by the bank. The age of the bank remains uncertain although it is considered possible that it is ancient in origin and perhaps contemporary with the foundation of the church. The machined section through the bank measured 1.8m in width and was machined to a height level with the present ground surface on each side of the bank. The bank itself measured 0.72m in height and 3.60m in width. The section through the bank showed it to be constructed of three or possibly four separate dumps of soil. The bank material was unconsolidated suggesting a relatively recent date for its construction although this is not conclusive. No artefacts were recovered during the work. The natural material in the vicinity of the bank was not exposed during the course of the work, therefore it was not possible to verify the presence or absence of a contemporary ditch running alongside the bank. The excavated section through the bank did not reveal sufficient information to determine the age of the bank. The core material of the bank (01) had similar characteristics as the topsoil in areas away from the bank suggesting that it was not redeposited geological material which had been upcast from a flanking ditch. Deposits above the core material have been heavily disturbed by rooting and animal burrowing. Although the material forming the uppermost deposit of the bank (03) consisted in part of redeposited natural sand, its unconsolidated nature suggests that it was a relatively recent addition to the bank. In this respect, the report by the attendant church warden that grave diggers had added excess excavated material to the bank from grave digging may be relevant. Circular or oval churchyard boundaries are a characteristic of early church foundations (Blair 2005 pp 197) particularly of minster sites. Avery slight curve is discernible in the line of the church bank at Itteringham both on the ground and on historic maps including the Tithe map of 1839 and the Enclosure map of 1823(NCC 2017b). However, a slight curve in the line of the field boundary immediately east of the line of Church Road which appears to form a continuation of the churchyard north boundary is also curved as is another field boundary further south. Hence the curve of the bank forming the north boundary of the churchyard is reflected in field boundaries in the wider landscape.