Chapter 1 archaeology.indd

The Revised History of Great Yarmouth

Chap-

ter One

Geology

and Ar-

chaeol-

The prehistoric trackways are very clear on the

photographs. It is likely that the Roman roads, and the

subsequent modern roads from Yarmouth to Lowestoft,

Yarmouth to Haddiscoe, and Yarmouth to Caister, all

have their origins in prehistoric routes.

Geology

and

Archaeology

A very fine stone axe was found beside Long Lane at

Corton. This lane, which apparently leads nowhere,

since it does not lead directly to Corton, but straight

to the cliff, is perhaps the remnant of a roadway to the

lost village of Newton, to which it once led in common

with Station Road Hopton, and Stirrups lane, Corton.

Ref iv Newton village disappeared into the sea in

Medieval times, and many other villages

have surely suffered the same fate over the

last two or more millennia. Yarmouth in

Roman times was somewhat inland, even

a few miles from the sea.

Corton cliff, Lillian Rumbelow in the foreground.

The small flint scrapers were found by me

in a field south of the 13 th hole at Gorles-

ton Golf Course at map reference 531008.

Neolithic tools have been found all over

the area between Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

Mr. Bullock at Hopton, picked up some

remarkable examples of worked flints over

a thirty year period to 1951. Some of the

best of these were photographed by Phillip

Rumbelow.

Axes from Long Lane, Corton. photo by Philip

Rumbelow.

Another ancient track ran north-east from

the site of Browston Hall. There seems to

have been a stone age dwelling site. The

possibility of a Roman Villa on this site

has been largely discounted as no Roman

artifacts have been noticed whilst plough-

ing. It has been suggested that (at least some of) the crop

marks may represent a formal garden for the Elizabethan

Hall on the same site (see page 27). If this is a

Roman Temple complex though, there would

be few if any obvious artifacts. However,

the whole of the area between Gorleston and

Corton was intensively farmed in the Stone

Age. Iron age, Bronze Age and even earlier

field systems and numerous trackways show

up in the crop marks.

At Gorleston there have been three finds from

the Bronze Age that suggest a Bronze Age

village there. The first discovery of Bronze-

Age axe heads was made at the north-west

corner of the Magdalen playing field. It may

well be that excavation of that field, as yet

unbuilt upon, could reveal further evidence

of Stone Age and Bronze Age settlement.

Flint arrow head and scraper from Hopton .

Rumbelow and Corton Cliff

Rumbelow on ﬂint tools

28

Chapter

One

A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth

Bronze axe

heads were

found at

Stuart Close,

Gorleston.

This could

be called

“Gorleston

hoard III”

A find of several bronze axe heads was made in 1952

in a trench cut to lay a pipe. This has been called

“Gorleston hoard I”. Another hoard was discovered

some years prior to 1966, and has been called

“Gorleston hoard II”. The latter was exchanged with,

and can be seen at, the Birmingham museum. The find

was on the site of the Magdalen Arms public house. It

was privately discovered and kept secret at the time.

“Gorleston Hoard I”, can be seen on display at the

Tolhouse museum. There are a considerable number of

socketed axe-heads, parts of sword blades, and some

scrap bronze. It is thought to represent the secret store

of a bronze merchant or smith. It would have been

very valuable. Andrews and Squires builders made

one further find of a bronze axe head, in May 1991,

when Dr.Kumar’s surgery in Stuart Close was extended

towards the pavement. The axe head was lying only

some nine inches or more below the surface, beside

the public footpath.

Flint knives and arrow heads from Hopton

found over several years by Mr Bullock and

photographed by P.E.Rumbelow. Not all ﬂint

implements are “Classical” or symmetric in

shape. A razor edge may be found one side and

the rough opposite side remains to be held.

Yet another discovery of Bronze Age axes is recorded

to have been made, at the old Rectory at Somerleyton,

in 1926. [xiv] Somerleyton may also be of further

archaeological interest in the future. On 12th.

Sept.1994, I identified an area in a field about 500

yards south-west of the church, where there are many

small fragments of brick and some small pottery sherds.

The modern village is nowhere near the church, and

so this may well be the site of the medieval village.

There are other possible reasons for the incidence

of such fragments, and a careful survey is needed,

before jumping to conclusions. At the same spot I

also identified a stone age tool, a large flint scraper

of the semi-circular variety. A hundred yards further

south in the wood, is a most unusual earthwork, that

appears to be a claypit, but which has some curiously

shaped mounds at the north-east corner, that may also

be well worthy of further investigation.

A12 modern Road

This Medieval Mortar was found during the

building work at Caister in 1930’s at Brooke

Avenue (see also in “Roman History”,

Caister, page 54).

The Medieval Mortar, (Rumbelow’s Diary)

Ditch C

The A12 road is seen in upper part of photo, Links Road comes off the A12, just out of view. The upper

ﬁeld is that referred to in the text. Note the ring ditch on the left lower edge of the photo. ( Ditch C ).The

dark lines in both ﬁelds are ﬁlled prehistoric ditches deﬁning ancient ﬁeld systems, and may date any

where from 3,000-500 B.C. See also, page 41, for detail.

29

The Revised History of Great Yarmouth

Chap-

ter One

Geology

and Ar-

chaeol-

There is a saucer-like depression east of the A12

road, immediately south of Links Road at Gorles-

ton, which is in a field that exhibits an enormous

number of crop markings, and easily produces

stone tools. This depression could be the remains

of a stockade. [xv] This type of circular stockade

is reported as being used to contain the valuable

livestock, dwellings being built around the outside.

Another pair of such saucer-like depressions can be

found about 500 yards south of Lound Church, on

top of a small rise. Both these sites appear worthy

of skilled investigation. Strangely, they are both

double depressions, so perhaps human habitation

was within one, with animals occupying the other.

A significant number of ring-ditches can be seen

on the aerial photos. In some cases these would

have been a fortification around an individual hut.

At least one of these is within the bounds of what

seems to represent a large ploughed-out bank. Part of

a bank still remaining was spotted by the Yarmouth

archaeological society in the fields immediately

west of the James Paget Hospital. Such a bank may

actually be part of a larger fortified site or “hillfort”.

[xvi] Further saucer-like man made depressions are

to be found beside Butt lane, opposite the Roman

fort; to the north-west of the Green Lane/ Beccles

Road junction; at least four at Somerleyton, with

especially good examples beside the “Glebe House”;

and S.W. of the Haddiscoe to Hales road; also at

Raveningham.

Geology

and

Archaeology

This is the depression east of the A12.

And opposite Lound Church.

This pipe was in

Boulter’s museum

in the Market

Place, labelled as

Roman, said to

come out of the

town wall. (photo

by P. Rumbelow)

Much earlier, half a million years ago, an ancient

and huge river ran from the midlands, south-east of

Birmingham and winding through Leicester, across

East Anglia and through Hoxne towards the North

Sea. - Professor D.Coope, David Keen, et al [xvii]

have reported a river bed at Waverley Wood Farm,

where there was an occupation leaving stone tools,

at least 500,000 years ago. This river, I suggest,

ran into the chalk valley that I have described. It is

almost certain that there was a great river at Yar-

mouth some 500,000 years ago, its banks occupied

by ancient man. In no way does this river relate to

the Yare or Waveney, which are post-glacial features,

or to the inter-glacial period, since in those later

periods the valley was filled up with sand, although

there could well have been yet another river here

then also. Ref xvii

map, first

page of the

introduc-

The map of the prehistoric river

This photo shows timber projecting from the sand of

a North Norfolk beach. Was this the sea henge, now

controversially removed (photo from Rumbelow’s

Diary). The timbers are undergoing preservation

treatment with ethylene glycol at the Mary Rose Trust,

and are expected to be on display at King’s Lynn

Museum in 1997. The sea henge was at map reference

TF 693442.

Sea Henge

Boulter’s Museum

30

Chapter

One

A New Perlustration of Great Yarmouth

The earliest record of an archaeological excavation

in the area of the town itself appears in “Norfolk

Archaeology” in 1890. Funerary jars containing

cremated remains were found below sea level at

Runham, on the western outskirts of the modern

town, over the west bank of the river Bure. The

report suggested a Roman origin for these artefacts,

but they are no longer in existence, and the report

regrettably gives insufficient detail to regard the

evidence as much more than a curiosity, though

equally there is no reason to discount it.

The Priory of the Blackfriars was destroyed by fire

in the Middle Ages, Ref ii but it now seems clear

that much earlier, there was an enormous fire in the

whole of the area from South Quay to King Street

and north from Rows 128 and 129 to Fuller’s Hill

and Hall Quay, in about the year 1000. It appears

to have been so great that it spared nothing. The

evidence for this is the entirely continuous layer

already described, about 2 feet thick, 3.5-4 metres

below present ground level, which is full of black

charcoal and burned fibres of straw and reed. This

is such a substantial layer that it seems unlikely to

represent any small of isolated fires, such as the

burning of a large area of marram grass. The layer

contains signs of occupation with a large number of

fish bones in most places. Due to the commercial

nature of the excavation in the pipe trench, very lit-

tle material was examined, and only a few pottery

sherds have been recovered. The burned fibres in

this layer remain intact and unbroken in the ground,

despite being burned entirely to carbon. This shows

that the ground here was never subsequently worked

by ploughing or dug in any way. As soon as this ma-

terial is disturbed the black fibres disintegrate, and

only a few tiny fragments of wood survive washing.

A layer of sand immediately overlays this remark-

able feature, so that the layer is entirely discrete,

sharply delineated everywhere by the clean sand

layers above and below.

Phillip Rumbelow at Fritton. (centre)

Medieval

pottery

discovered

when the

post ofﬁce

was rebuilt.

(photo from

Rumbelow’s

Diary)

In 1886 a ship buried under King Street was recorded

by Phillip Rumbelow [xviii]. It was found during

work on the 19th century brick built sewer in King

Street. This sewer. The “Viking” ship may well be

a ship burial; it has never been examined. It was

too deep to be uncovered by the 5 metre cut of the

1994 pipe trench. It is yet another ancient artefact

yet to be properly examined (see Rumbelow’s Diary

for more detail).

Phillip Ernest Rumbelow, was a plumber by trade,

had learned as a lad, the skills of a naturalist from

Arthur Patterson, and local history from Harry

Johnson. He was a great observer and recorder.

Sadly none of his work was printed. Living at 27

Rodney Road, he died aged 75, 26th May, 1954,

then president of the G.Y. Archaeological Society,

Right, the

trench along

South Quay.

The Viking ship, detailed in Rumbelow’s Diary

31