NHER 18394 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of probable Bronze Age round barrow west of Lodge Farm

9 June 1980. NAU air photography (S1).
Positive cropmarks.
1 ring ditch.
D. Edwards (NAU) 27 September 1982.

Note position near junction of 3 parish boundaries.
E. Rose (NAU) 28 September 1982.

In fact corrected grid reference from overlay shows it is bisected by the parish boundary.
E. Rose (NAU) 7 November 1983.

Called Howes Close on medieval charters, with field to south called Bloodfield and Mill Lane being Blood Lane.
Information from [1].
E. Rose (NAU) 28 November 1988.

August 2006. Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 4355 1548 to TG 4357 1547.

The ring ditch described above is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1)-(S2), centred at TG 4357 1547. It is most likely to represent the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow or similar funerary monument. Its size (28m in diameter) is larger than most round houses, for example, and its topographic location, close to the summit of a hill and overlooking a valley to its east, is typical of such monuments, as is the placename ‘howe’ (see above). A possible palaeochannel, visible as cropmarks to its north but not mapped by the NMP, could have been a significant natural feature in the choice of location. In addition, the fact that it is bisected by a parish boundary (between Rollesby and Ashby with Oby), and lies only 50m to the northwest of the junction between this boundary and the edge of Fleggburgh, suggests that it was a prominent and early landscape feature. In common with a number of other ring ditches, e.g. NHER 40655 located approximately 780m to the northeast, it also appears to be respected by part of a possibly later prehistoric trackway (NHER 44898), the southwest end of which is visible 25m to the east. It is also surrounded by various undated linear and curvilinear cropmarks (NHER 44901), some of which are of doubtful archaeological origin. They include a curvilinear mark at TG 4354 1541 which could be part of a second ring ditch.

The ring ditch is circular in plan. It measures approximately 28m in diameter externally and 24m internally. A pit-like cropmark is visible within it, but as there is no evidence that it is archaeological in origin it has not been mapped by the NMP. It should be noted that due to a paucity of suitable control points, the rectification of both aerial photographs was poor. This may have had an adverse effect on the accuracy of the mapping.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 2 August 2006.