Medieval demolition deposit and possible structure, Activity Area 4, land East of Tudwick Road (EHER 80982)

Trial trenching recorded a probable demolition deposit containing medieval pottery which may be indicative of a former agricultural structure at the site. A ditch in Trench 317, backfilled with post-medieval material, correlates to a former trackway on First Edition OS mapping and may be associated with the possible structure.

July 2023. Trial trenching. Demolition (or levelling) material, potentially related to a building, was revealed within Trench 316. Here, a large spread of silty clay material was identified, containing stone chunks which appeared to be derived from a structure. The deposit was at least 12m long and extended outside the trench edges. An exploratory slot identified a ditch terminal or pit cutting the deposit. It contained a small quantity of residual Late Iron Age/Romano-British pottery, alongside medieval pottery, oyster shells and animal bone. Medieval pottery was also recovered from a N-S aligned ditch, also in Trench 316. A ditch was identified in Trench 317 which, when compared to historic maps, appears to form one side of a backfilled trackway; the ditch produced a fragment of iron, a clay tobacco pipe stem and a piece of post-medieval ceramic building material. It could be suggested that the features and finds in Trench 316 have a connection to this trackway, potentially indicating that the track has earlier origins. Although these features appear to be, at present, quite isolated, the First Edition Ordnance Survey mapping suggests that the possible trackway identified in Trench 317 originated as a spur to Tudwick Road, 450m to the NW. The track appears to have followed a NW-SE alignment and ended just beyond Trenches 316 and 317. If a building did exist in this location, it may have a relationship to the trackway as a means of access to the surrounding landscape; an agricultural function is therefore most likely. <1>