Land east of Beccles Road, Loddon

Between the 24th of April and the 10th of May 2023 Oxford Archaeology carried out informative trial trench on land east of Beccles Road, Loddon, Norfolk. The proposed residential development area consisted of a single 7.6ha arable field on the south-eastern edge of the village. The works followed a geophysical survey of the field which had identified numerous anomalies of possible archaeological origin in the form of linear features which appeared to make up a multiphase field system, as well as features probably associated with quarrying activity. A total of 37 trenches were excavated across the site.
In general, the trenching confirmed the results of the geophysical survey, revealing a relatively large number of boundary ditches, concentrated in an area in the central part of the site, but extending into the southernmost parts of the proposed development area. These ditches include several features which relate to post-medieval/early modern field boundaries shown on historic maps of the site, but the majority appear to relate to an extensive multiphase system of boundaries laid out on two principal alignments. Dateable finds from these features were dominated by Roman pottery (a total of 152 sherds, 2643g) but the recovery of small quantities of Middle Iron Age pottery (16 sherds, 359g in total) suggests that some of these boundaries may have later prehistoric origins. Other associated finds included small assemblages of Roman ceramic building material, quernstone fragments, and animal bone. A small number of discrete features (pits and post holes) may have been associated with these boundaries, but the vast majority did not produce dateable finds.
Earlier activity at the site was represented by a single pit associated with a single sherd of possible Bronze Age pottery and a small assemblage of residual Mesolithic to Bronze Age flintwork, whilst a single cremation burial, radiocarbon dated to the Early Bronze Age was found interred within a small pit in the central part of the site. Alongside the ditches relating to field boundaries shown on historic mapping, later, post-medieval to modern land use was also represented by two large quarry pits revealed in the southern part of the site, immediately adjacent to Beccles Road.