Archaeological Evaluation at Fairstead, King's Lynn, Norfolk

This project was commissioned by Wilcon Homes Ltd to assess the archaeological potential of the development area (centred TL 640 190). The work was carried out from the 8th of February to the 1st March 2002. There is reason to believe that the evaluation has illuminated only a very small sample of the surviving prehistoric archaeology of the assessment area. Following a site visit, Dr. Peter Murphy, Palaeoenvironmental Research Coordinator for English Heritage, wrote that; "although the prehistoric archaeology of the Norfolk fen-edge was investigated during the Fenland Management Project, the sites examined lay to the south, in the peat fen (Crowson et al. 2000). The fen-edge to the north is comparatively unknown. This evaluation, and any future excavations arising from it, are therefore of considerable regional significance" (P. Murphy, pers . comm.). The earliest dating of the flint assemblage to the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic has only reinforced this. Malcolm Bradbury, writing in East Anglian Archaeology Report 50 acknowledges the destruction of the fen resource but continues; "there is still an opportunity to confront artefactual and environmental evidence from the same areas and even to locate the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition". It seems that the site at Fairstead offers a rare opportunity to study a hitherto undamaged section of fen edge, where corresponding palaeoenvironmental and archaeological evidence will greatly contribute to our understanding of landscape utilisation in the Late Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. 2