Land East of Hargham Road, Attleborough, Norfolk

Between 24th of October and 30th November Oxford Archaeology East (OA East) conducted an evaluation at land to the east of Hargham Road, Attleborough (centred on TM 03856 93727). The evaluation consisted of 47 trenches, distributed across the proposed development area of 6.7 hectares.
There was evidence in the north-east of the site for activity dating from the Late Neolithic through to the Early Bronze Age, focussed particularly in Trench 32. A group of seven post holes and two small pits represented possible evidence for one or more post-built structures. Significantly, three of the post holes and one pit contained Beaker pottery, much of it decorated. The majority of the Beaker pottery came from a single post hole.
There was very limited evidence of Iron Age activity at the site and although Romano-British pottery was more common, the overall assemblage was still relatively small for the period. The dispersed nature of the Roman pottery and the small quantities recovered are indicative of outlying field system, rather than the core of a Roman settlement.
The evaluation confirmed the presence of a series of east-south-east to west-north-west orientated ditches dating to the post-medieval period, although certain boundaries may have had medieval antecedents. In total, six of these ditched boundaries are visible on the 1840 Tithe map for Attleborough.