Between 22nd June 2022 and 30th August 2023 Oxford Archaeology carried out a programme of open-area excavation and monitoring for Ørsted Hornsea Project Three (UK) Limited along c. 55km of the Hornsea Project Three onshore export cable corridor (ECC). The corridor ran from Weybourne (TG 10487 43745) on the North Norfolk coast to Dunston (TG 21964 02672) to the south of Norwich. The programme consisted of 31 excavation areas and one area of monitoring, covering a total of 12.02ha. The fieldwork revealed features of Early Neolithic to modern date. The earliest evidence recorded was an Early Neolithic monument found on a hilltop near the Blackbreck Plantation in the Ringland Hills. This monument consisted of concentric ring-ditches surrounding a central pit, with finds including pottery and worked flint. Three burnt mounds and associated features were identified to the north of Reepham, clustered around streams between Salle and Heydon. This activity was dated to the Early and Middle Bronze Age, but scattered assemblages of Late Bronze Age pottery were recovered also from their immediate vicinities. A circular, wood-lined trough was recorded in one area: radiocarbon dated to the Middle Bronze Age. Late Bronze Age features included a trackway possibly related to one of the burnt mound complexes and a group of pits near Little Witchingham. A very large Middle Bronze Age enclosure was partially revealed to the south of Reepham. The ditch which formed the enclosure measured up to 6.1m wide and 3.2m deep. Early Iron Age pits were recorded across the excavation areas nearby, and a smaller rectilinear enclosure dating to the Middle Iron Age, was recorded off Caston Road in Salle. Further south, near Easton, pits containing pottery dating from the Early to Late Iron Age were identified, along with a pair of probably contemporary ditches. Near Reepham, just to the north of the Middle Bronze Age enclosure, a dense area of Romano-British rural settlement remains was recorded. This included a multi-phased field system, a post-built barn, several corn dryers and waste deposits related to metalworking in the immediate locality. The investigated features were clearly situated within a wider agricultural landscape, evidenced through field boundaries extending north towards Salle. Other Romano-British features identified during the project included a pottery kiln near Corpusty and a post-built structure and associated field system at Morton-on-the-Hill. A series of charcoal-filled pits - which surrounded the Early Neolithic monument revealed at Blackbreck Plantation - have been tentatively dated to the Anglo-Saxon period. Beyond these features, limited evidence for further Anglo-Saxon activity was recorded across the scheme. Medieval activity was evidenced along the entire length of the scheme. This included Saxo-Norman to high medieval roadside settlement enclosures at Kelling Road in Lower Holt and Merrison's Lane in Salle, with the pottery assemblage from the latter attesting to domestic activity at this site. Assorted agricultural enclosures and field systems were found near Baconsthorpe Castle (pre-dating the castle itself), around Corpusty and Saxthorpe, around the roadside settlement in Salle and on Marl Hill Road at Morton-on-the-Hill. Near Corpusty, evidence for metalworking and marine shellfish processing was recorded, along with a corn dryer. Probable evidence for a mill was also recorded at this site, with further, more tentative evidence for mills recorded from several other mitigation areas along the scheme. High medieval to post-medieval mineral extraction activity was well attested along the route, especially at Salle (where they truncated the earlier roadside settlement) and at Little Witchingham.
Rogers et al. (Wed,) studied this question.