| Abstract: |
This assessment of proposed development at the Lind BMW Ber Street sites addresses the likely impact of those proposals upon the known archaeology of the site. This includes evidence for probable early Norman development of Ber Street and occupation of this date along the street frontage. Although Ber Street is often stated to have origins as a Roman road, it is here argued that Ber Street (and possibly three other streets) may have had origins as planned Norman expansion of the town, subsequent to the creation of the Market Place but perhaps still before 1086. If so, Ber Street may be a deliberate creation as a market street, possibly connected with the bishop, and later with the new cathedral priory. Except for part of St Bartholomew''s churchyard on the East Site, north end, the sites would appear to have been in secular and domestic use in the middle ages. It is likely that extensive rebuilding in the 16th and 17th centuries took place, making timber-framed jettied buildings a feature of Ber Street, as elsewhere in Norwich, with gradual replacement, but not complete loss, over the next three centuries or so. On the East Site, some buildings were lost to bombing in 1942, but any remaining older buildings were swept away in development of the two sites in the 1960s and later. On the east, the site contains a known cellar and the impact of former fuel tanks; other cellars might be anticipated. On the East Site, the proposed development area is now level, but this may result in part from dumping in the medieval period and later. Except for the cellar, all buildings are modern. On the West Site, the area lies in two terraces, but the relationship to the natural slope is not entirely clear. There are small modern offices on part of the site. |
