Norfolk Archaeology 35 (1)

Of four dishes of late Roman date ploughed up in 1968, two correspond to Peal's type 4d(i) and one each to types 4 and 4(i). The decoration of the smallest bowl (type 4d) consists of three elements, a beaded rim decoration, twelve beasts in relief in the field of the rim, and two cartouches. The cartouches and beasts, all clumsily made and positioned on the bowl, may be sea-creatures inspired by certain Romano-British mosaics or their copy-book archetypes; and they were possibly pre-cast individually and set in prepared beds on the dishes. A T

TF 713217. The 1964 investigations did not produce evidence for preserved kiln structure, but the amount of ash burning, burnt and unburnt clay found in all the trial trenches suggests that kilns other than the one discovered by Nicholls in 1963 may lie in this or adjacent fields. The area to the south of the Grimston to Pott Row road, consisting of the field under investigation and a number of others, has produced a thick scatter of pottery including a fairly high proportion of wasters, and it appears that an area measuring at least 1 mile E-W and ½ mile southwards from the Grimston to Pott Row road was significant in the production of pottery in the Middle Ages. The list of pottery types (all Developed Thetford Ware of 12th century) included in this paper is a tentative classification of the material found in the 1964 excavations, and it is hoped that it will prove useful as a basis for future work on the early medieval pottery of W Norfolk. Au

TG 526085. In a three-day excavation carried out in Regent Road and Deneside in advance of building, a section of the town wall (built according to the historical evidence c 1284) was cut against one of the piers. Knowledge of previous marine transgressions and regressions had suggested that the wall was erected when the land still stood 12-13 ft higher than it does today, or did in Roman times, and this was proved by the fact that the layer of clay silt cut by the foundation trench of the wall contained water-worn Roman material. The excavation also proved that, contrary to previous opinion, there was a medieval moat, which must have been recut during the Civil War and subsequently refilled. Also obtained was information about the construction of the wall. The moat had been dug first, based with flagstones and revetted with flint, and the wall then built into the moat side. C M H