Excavation of Prehistoric and Saxon Cemeteries and Settlement at Harford Farm, Caistor St Edmunds (NHER TG2204 ADY - NLA 257/GFQ7)

A complex multi-phase site at Harford Farm, to the south of Norwich, photographed on 05-APR-1990. The site was first identified from the air in 1933 and subsequent aerial photography and excavation in 1989–91, in advance of the construction of the Southern Bypass, revealed that the large circular enclosures visible on the aerial photographs represent the remains of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery. Around this cemetery an Iron Age settlement developed, which included a number of roundhouses, small structures and boundary ditches. Also revealed was a group of Late Iron Age or Early Roman funerary monuments surrounded by small square enclosures. The site was again used as a cemetery in the Middle Saxon period and 48 graves dating to the 7th and 8th centuries were excavated. Later trackways and field boundaries indicate the continued use of this landscape, predominantly for agricultural purposes. The NMP mapping revealed traces of shallow ditches and cut features already destroyed by ploughing prior to the excavation. The Southern Bypass now runs across the central section of the site. © Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service; photographer – Derek A Edwards