With contributions from David Gurney and Frances Healy. Illustrations by Margaret Mathews. Photographs by Derek A. Edwards.
The second Norfolk volume covers a substantial tract of peat fen defined by three rivers, and incorporates the only island of any size in the Norfolk Fens. The rapid shrinkage of peat on the upland edge has revealed a densely-occupied zone that was settled from the Mesolithic through to the Bronze Age. Human settlement is viewed against changing environmental conditions as the Embayment became waterlogged and the fen edge was deserted in historic times. Investigation of the Roman road known as the Fen Causeway revealed a canal, and the associated salt-making and peat cutting economy.
Author(s): Robert J. Silvester
Series: East Anglian Archaeology, 52
Publisher: The Norfolk Archaeological Unit
Year: 1991
Language: English
Pages: 286
City: Dereham
List of Contents v
List of Plates vi
List of Figures vi
List of Tables vii
Contents of Microfiche viii
Contributors viii
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations ix
A note on the Use of Radiocarbon Dates x
Summary xi
1. Introduction
I. The Fens and the Fenland Project 1
II. The Extent and Geography of the Wissey Embayment 1
III. The Historical Background
IV. Flandrian Deposits 6
History of the study
The sedimentary sequence
V. The Modern Landscape 7
VI. Sources 7
VII. The Field Survey and its Methods 8
VIII. Organisation of the Report 9
IX. Landscapes and Maps: a synthesis 11
The Parish Essays: The Wissey Embayment
2. Feltwell 29
3. Hilgay 41
4. Hockwold 49
5. Methwold 58
6. Northwold 70
7. Southery 72
8. Synthesis and Discussion 79
The Fen Causeway
9. Fen Causeway 95
I. Introduction 97
II. The Geography of the Fen Causeway 97
III. Historical Background 97
IV. The Sedimentary Sequence 101
V. Sources 101
VI. Organisation of the Report 102
The Road and its Hinterland: Description 103
I. The Roddon 103
II. The Fen Causeway 103
III. Other Roads 107
IV. Turbaries 107
V. Settlements and Salterns 109
VI. Field and Enclosure Systems 110
11. Discussion 113
Appendix 1: by Frances Healy 116
I. Introduction 116
II. Lithics 116
III. Pre-Iron Age Pottery 128
IV. Synthesis 133
Appendix 2: The Decoy Farm Sandhill, Hockwold, by Frances Healy and Bob Silvester 141
Appendix 3: The Roman Pottery, by David Gurney 143
Appendix 4: The Wissey Embayment in the Seventeenth Century 146
Appendix 5: Early Maps of the Wissey Embayment 151
Bibliography 152
Index 158
Microfiche (111 pp.)
