Norfolk County Council Historic Environment Service

27/10/2026

New EAA publication, EAA 186. A Cam Valley Landscape: Bronze Age to Romano-British Settlement at Clay Farm, Trumpington, Cambridgeshire

Large-scale excavations at Clay Farm, Trumpington – on the southern fringes of Cambridge – revealed archaeological remains spanning the Neolithic and Roman periods. The key discovery was a series of Middle Bronze Age field systems, enclosures, and settlements in a part of the region where such activity had not previously been recorded.

The earliest land divisions took the form of strip fields, traces of which survived across the entire site. An intricate system of enclosures and field boundaries developed above these early fields, using them as a reference point. In addition, a Bronze Age barrow became the focus of a relatively substantial cremation cemetery. Two discrete areas of settlement were established, with associated middens which produced significant finds assemblages of both regional and national importance. Good preservation of Middle Bronze Age plant macrofossils, pollen and insects is rare within similar landscapes in Southern Britain, meaning that the remains from Clay Farm are of considerable significance in terms of the rich evidence they provide for early hedged boundaries and grazing livestock .

Ready to dive straight in? Visit the EAA website to purchase a hard copy of the book through Script https://eaareports.org.uk/eaa-186-a-cam-valley-landscape-bronze-age-to-romano-british-settlement-at-clay-farm-trumpington-cambridgeshire

Published by Oxford Archaeology

16/10/2026

Since November 2025 we’ve been carrying out essential repairs on Turf Fen Mill. We’re excited to share that most repairs have been completed with the repairs to the Cap now completed.

What’s left to do is the installation of the stocks and fantails. These are currently being repaired off site and will be installed in the oncoming months. Repairs to the outside of the building such as bricks and windows have been completed.

Turf Fen Mill is a one of the Broads’ most recognisable landmarks. This restoration safeguards it for the future, preserving a vital piece of Norfolk's industrial Heritage and living legacy to the working history of the landscape.

Turf Fen Mill is 1 of 3 drainage mills on the How Hill estate. The estate is home to the How Hill Trust, a renowned environmental study centre for the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.

Norfolk County Council has received funding from Historic England to carry out essential repairs.

13/10/2026

Finds day at Lynn Museum

Have you found something interesting while out walking, metal detecting or gardening?

Join us at Lynn Museum on Saturday 17 October, 11am–3pm for our Finds Identification and Recording Day. Experts from our Finds Identification and Recording Service will be on hand to examine your objects, share what we know about them, and discuss how significant finds can be recorded for future research.

Bring along your discoveries and meet specialists who can help identify:
🪙 Coins
⛏️ Flint tools
🏺 Pottery and other archaeological finds over 300 years old

Whether you're a seasoned collector, metal detectorist, or simply curious about something you've found, we'd love for you to join us

📍 Lynn Museum
📅 Saturday 17 October
⏰ 11am–3pm

10/10/2026

Today is World Mental Health Day and in the Norfolk Historic Environment Record we are thinking about how our understanding of mental health has changed over the last two centuries and the historic buildings associated with treating mental health that are recorded within our database.

Our officers have recently been looking at the former St. Andrew's Hospital in Thorpe St Andrew (NHER 9693). Originally known as Thorpe Asylum, the first site was located on the south side of Yarmouth Road and opened in 1814. It was only the third asylum of its kind (County asylum) built in England. By 1880 a second site had been built on the north side of Yarmouth Road. Only the original southern complex of buildings survives today. These were Listed Grade II in 1973 and were later converted to residential use.

The asylum, which was paid for by taxpayers, is said to have been run as cheaply as possible. Patients were expected to work if they were able and could be admitted for conditions we would not consider mental health related today, such as epilepsy.

The asylum began with a single complex with separated male and female wings, along with areas for the care of patients like visiting rooms and 'airing yards' and facilities associated with the general running of the complex like the kitchens and staff accommodation. Over time the complex was developed to incorporate places for recreation, worship and work. An Octagonal chapel was built in 1849 in addition to new laundries, workshops, and a bridge giving access to a farmyard from the workshops. Separate houses were also built for staff members including the Medical Superintendents, engineers and nurses to make space for additional patients within the asylum.

In 1880 an auxiliary asylum building was constructed to the north of Yarmouth Road to hold an additional 140 patients with separate wards for the sick, epileptic and acute cases. It was also decided to fully separate male and female patients, with female patients moving to the old asylum building. A mortuary and additional workshops were also constructed.

By the 1960s changing attitudes around mental health services meant that St. Andrew's role was reducing, with community care, day hospitals and co-ordination with social services favoured to large psychiatric hospitals. St Andrews eventually closed for good in 1998 following a period of reduced and changed use.

Visit the county Asylums website (https://www.countyasylums.co.uk/st-andrews-norwich/) to find out more about St. Andrew’s Hospital.
View the Norfolk Historic Environment Record on-line https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF9693.

Image descriptions:
First Edition Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (Norfolk Sheet LXIV.SW) depicting the site of the Thorpe Asylum as surveyed in 1881, shortly following construction of the northern auxiliary site. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
An aerial photograph taken by the RAF in June 1946, showing the extent of both the northern and southern complexes which comprised St Andrews Hospital.
St Andrew’s Hospital, Thorpe. Reproduced with kind permission of County Asylums (https://www.countyasylums.co.uk/st-andrews-norwich/).

Buildings Health

08/10/2026

This silver denarius of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus was struck in around AD 198 at the mint of Laodicea ad Mare, in modern Syria. The obverse bears a laureate portrait of the emperor, while the reverse depicts Victory advancing left holding a wreath and palm branch, symbols of military success. At the time it was issued, a silver denarius represented a useful amount of money in everyday Roman life and would have circulated amongst soldiers, merchants and local communities across the Roman Empire. Found near Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk, by a local metal detector user and recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme, this coin once travelled through an empire stretching from Britain to North Africa and West Asia.

Born in AD 145 at Leptis Magna in modern Libya, Septimius Severus was the first Roman emperor born in Africa. His father came from a family of Punic origin, descended from Phoenician settlers in North Africa, while his mother was of Italian ancestry. Following a successful military and political career, Severus became emperor in AD 193 during a period of civil war. His reign was marked by military campaigns and reforms across the Roman Empire, including in Britain, where he personally led campaigns on the northern frontier in what is now Scotland during the final years of his life. He died at York in AD 211, making him one of the few Roman emperors known to have died in Britain.

As we mark Black History Month, Septimius Severus provides an opportunity to reflect on the diversity of the Roman Empire and the challenges of applying modern ideas of ethnicity and race to the ancient world. Although Septimius Severus is sometimes described as a Black Roman emperor today, modern ideas of ethnicity and race do not map neatly onto the ancient world. Contemporary portraiture and historical sources emphasise his North African origins in both appearance and accent, but concepts such as “Black” did not exist in Roman society in the way they do today. Historians and archaeologists, therefore, continue to debate how best to describe the identities of people who lived nearly two thousand years ago. What is beyond dispute is that Severus was born in North Africa, rose to become emperor of Rome, and died in Britain while leading a military campaign. This coin reminds us that Roman Britain was part of an empire stretching across Europe, North Africa and West Asia, and that people from all of these regions, whether as soldiers, merchants, administrators or travellers, played a role in Britain's history.

The full record of the coin can be found on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database https://finds.org.uk/pas/recorded-find/NMS-DB15C5

29/09/2026

The proximity of Norfolk to the continent made it a suitable location for military installations used during the Cold War. The survey area for our North-West Norfolk aerial investigation and mapping project lay adjacent to the coast and we were able to record several military sites dating to this period.

Sculthorpe airfield was constructed during the Second World War but was also an important base during the Cold War. In the 1950s and 60s it was one of the largest and most strategically important American airfields in the country. The project recorded possible Cold War listening posts and transmitter sites in the vicinity of the airfield, which are visible on 1940s and 1950s RAF aerial photographs. It is possible that at least some of these sites were linked to activities taking place at the airfield. Formally under American control from 1951, Sculthorpe primarily functioned as a bomber and reconnaissance base but was also home to other units such as the US Army 50th Radio Controlled Airplane Target (RCAT) detachment, who operated early unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. You can learn more about the history of Sculthorpe airfield at RAF Sculthorpe Heritage Centre.

Two Royal Observer Corps (ROC) posts were also mapped by the project, at Docking and South Creake. Both are well preserved and had been recorded prior to the survey. ROC posts were constructed all over the United Kingdom. The underground structures were manned by volunteers, whose job it would be to gather and report information in the event of a nuclear attack.

25/09/2026

Two weeks to go until Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society 180th anniversary conference

With talks covering the Norfolk Carnyx Hoard, Romano-British pottery, archaeology and wellbeing and so much more this is not one you want to miss.

🗓️ Saturday 10 October
⌚ 10am-4pm
📍 University of East Anglia, Norwich

Book your tickets now https://www.nnas.info/conferences/

October Conference - BOOK NOW https://mailchi.mp/3849db5e9d4a/august-update-12848701

22/09/2026

Perhaps the most striking group of Second World War defences to be recorded by the North-West Norfolk aerial investigation and mapping project were those sited in and around the village of Docking. Docking was designated as a category ‘A’ nodal point. Nodal points were strategic towns and villages, which were fortified to block the progress of enemy troops in the event of an invasion. Prior to the survey, Docking was already notable for its record of surviving Second World War defences, including unusual Norcon pillboxes, loopholed walls, spigot mortar emplacements, traces of a roadblock, and two Tett turrets – a type of small gun emplacement sunk into a pit. The project was able to map some of these defences, better locate them, and add some new elements visible on 1940s aerial photographs, including further roadblocks, lengths of barbed wire obstructions, and traces of a possible infilled anti-tank ditch located to the north of the village.

The project was able to use archive aerial photography, dating from the 1940s (and sometimes earlier) to record sites relating to 20th-century military defences and activity. The availability of these photographs, held by the Norfolk Air Photo Library and the Historic England Archive, allowed many Second World War sites to be mapped while they were still in use, or shortly afterwards, before they had been dismantled.

Figure copyright acknowledgement: Photographic image: 10-JUL-2022 made available to Norfolk County Council via the PSGA agreement © Bluesky International Limited and Getmapping Limited 1999–2026.

16/09/2026

New EAA publication: The Evolution of a Norman French Borough in Norwich. Excavations between Theatre Street and Bethel Street, 1998–9, by John Percival

Between 1998-1999 open-area archaeological excavation took place on the city centre site of Norwich library. The site had laid vacant since the library building had been destroyed by fire in 1994.
The large archaeological project took place in advance of the new Forum library construction.

The excavation resulted in the discovery of a rich array of occupational evidence spanning several thousand years ranging from early Neolithic flint working to post-medieval pottery and glass. Most new data, however, was associated with medieval and early post-medieval domestic detritus and specialist crafting evidence deposited when this area of Norwich was inhabited by French refugees fleeing religious persecution in their homeland.

Ready to dive straight in? Visit the EAA website to purchase a hard copy of the book through Script https://eaareports.org.uk/eaa-188-the-evolution-of-a-norman-french-borough-in-norwich-excavations-between-theatre-street-and-bethel-street-1998-9

Published by Norfolk County Council.

15/09/2026

Significant numbers of 20th century military sites, both previously recorded and new discoveries, were mapped and recorded by the North-West Norfolk aerial investigation and mapping project. The open, flat, sparsely populated landscape of the project area, together with its proximity to the coast, made it a prime location for the construction of these sites.

One of the most evocative First World War sites to be mapped was a series of practice trenches on what was formerly Docking Common, now adjacent to the National Construction College (formerly Bircham Newton airfield). They are thought to have been excavated in 1915 by regiments of the Lovat Scouts, who were reported by a local newspaper to be using Docking Common for training exercises, including the construction of trenches.

The project not only mapped the earthworks of the trenches, as visible in 1945, but also identified for the first time a second group of trenches approximately 125m to the north. Visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs taken in 1946, by which time they appear to have been entirely levelled, the morphology of this second group is less clear, but they could be contemporary with the surviving trenches to the south and could also have been constructed by the Lovat Scouts.

Remarkably well-preserved, the southern group of trenches are designated as a Scheduled Monument in the National Heritage List for England (see list entry 1474255).

Figure copyright acknowledgement: Base mapping: © Crown copyright and database rights 2026 Ordnance Survey AC0000851272. Archaeological mapping © Norfolk County Council, licensed to Historic England.