Archaeological Trial Trenching, Church Farm Barn, Little Snoring Road, Kettlestone, Norfolk

Border Archaeology (BA) has been instructed to carry out a programme of Archaeological Mitigation starting with Trial Trenching of land at Church Farm Barn, Little Snoring Road, Kettlestone, Norfolk (NGR: TF 96647 31726 - approx. centre; in connection with the proposed demolition of two light industrial buildings and the erection of eight dwellings and associated works.All archaeological Site works will be undertaken in accordance with BA's Archaeological Field Recording Manual (2021) and Standards for Development-Led Archaeological Projects in Norfolk (Robertson et al. 2018), together with accepted professional standards, including Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment: The MoRPHE Project Managers' Guide (Lee 2015), Standard and guidance for archaeological field evaluation (CIfA 2020a), and Standard and guidance for the collection, documentation, conservation and research of archaeological materials (CIfA 2020b). BA will adhere to the requirements of the CIfA Code of conduct (2021) throughout the programme of works. The Site lies in what would have been, up until the early 20th Century, part of an agricultural field on the edge of the village of Kettlestone. Cartographical evidence and aerial photography show a range of agricultural buildings at the eastern end of the site which survived until at least 1955. Two further buildings were later erected for agricultural purposes, and later converted for light industrial practices in 2014. The ditches encountered in Trenches 005 and 006 were likely associated with this early 20th century activity, and the ditch observed within Trench 002 broadly aligned with the former field boundary to the S, which was depicted on the 1955 OS map. The shallow gullies within Trench 001 which cut through the buried soil horizon likely represented short lived drainage features, and which together within those recorded in Trench 003, likely fed into a pond on the W boundary of the site. Ditch 004004 encountered in Trench 004 was situated close to, and ran parallel with, the E-W aligned field boundary established by the later agricultural buildings, and despite containing 19th/20th refuse, it is not depicted on any available cartographic resource. It likely represents a mid to late 20th century boundary feature which was established to alleviate run off from the adjoining field.