Land North of Thetford, Norfolk: Anglian Water Scheme CCR-00007-63

Between 20th January 2020 and 18th March 2022 Oxford Archaeology East undertook several phases of excavation and monitoring along the route of an Anglia Water pipeline on the outskirts of Thetford, Norfolk (TL 8641 8490 to TL 8768 8215). Seven parts of the pipeline route were subject to archaeological works (Areas 1-7), with excavation carried out in Areas and 6 and monitoring of topsoil stripping in the other five areas.
Area 1 was located close to a major Iron Age and Roman site at Fison Way, to the north of Thetford, and revealed a relatively large number of poorly dated archaeological features, dominated by ditches alongside small pits and natural features. Aside from prehistoric worked flints and a small number of medieval to modern metal finds from topsoil/subsoil deposits, finds from these features were restricted to small quantities of Early Iron Age pottery (totalling 87 sherds, 426g), in poor condition and in most cases probably representing residual material caught up in later features/deposits. A single cremation burial, represented by some 400g of cremated human bone interred in a small pit, has also been radiocarbon dated to the Early Iron Age.
Area 6 was located to the east of Arlington Way, on the south-eastern outskirts of Thetford, and lay adjacent to a Romano-British farmstead first excavated in the 1990s. Again, a relatively large number of archaeological features, dominated by ditches, were revealed along the pipeline easement, but most produced no dateable finds. Only two of the ditches (neither of which produced any finds) seem likely, on the basis of their alignment, to have related to boundaries contemporary with the neighbouring Romano-British farmstead. The most significant remains in this area were a section of probable enclosure ditch and a number of associated pits which produced Middle Iron Age pottery (59 sherds, 1634g) and charred plant remains including cereal grain. These features probably represent part of a more extensive area of Middle Iron Age settlement, predating the significant Romano-British remains already known from the area.
No significant archaeological features or deposits were recorded during monitoring in the other areas of the pipeline route and finds were restricted to a single Late Neolithic flint arrowhead collected during topsoil stripping in Area 5, immediately north of Area 6.