Re-used Bedrock Ballast in King's Lynn's 'Town Wall' and the Norfolk Port's Medieval Trading Links

AbstractThe geology of ballast is considered in the accounts of numerous shipwreck excavations, yet there are few studies of ballast that has subsequently been employed as a construction material and is now preserved on land. Re-used bedrock ballast has the potential to provide information on a port's trading connections: the geological evidence may supplement historical sources, or it may supply fresh detail when written records are not available. This paper reports on the results of the first comprehensive survey of the impressive number of ballast cobbles in King's Lynn's medieval 'Town Wall'.