NHER 24982 (Monument record) - Enclosure and/or field system, possibly Iron Age to Roman in date

3 July 1976.
Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photographs aerial photography (S1).
Cropmarks of ditches of square enclosures with entrances to west. One askew with playing card corner, and 'blocks' perhaps site of buildings; or manure heaps!
D. Edwards (NAU), 19 November 1985.

October 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Some of the cropmarks described above are now recorded under the following numbers: enclosures visible on the southern part of the site are now NHER 45096; the ‘blocks’ (‘buildings’ or ‘manure heaps’) are now NHER 45075; other cropmarks visible on the photographs but not mentioned above are recorded individually as NHER 45074 (a possible ring ditch) and NHER 45097 (enclosures and/or field system), or as part of the larger multi-period site NHER 45072. NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 406 183 to TG 4062 1843.

The enclosure with a ‘playing card corner’ mentioned above, together with a number of associated ditches, is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S2)-(S3). It comprises a rectilinear arrangement of ditches, possibly forming an elongated rectangular enclosure oriented northwest to southeast. Its northeast side seems to have been formed by a double ditch or trackway. Entrances are visible in the northwest and southwest sides; a faint mark within the latter suggests that it was an entrance for only part of the lifetime of the enclosure. The enclosure is surrounded by a number of ditches which share its orientation and are presumably associated with it. (One, visible between TG 4058 1847 and TG 4052 1844, crosses the northern end of the enclosure and may belong to a different phase of activity.) These may define further enclosures or parts of a larger field system. Although the cropmarks are undated, their general orientation and character suggests that a date in the Iron Age and/or Roman period is plausible. It may be significant that the conjectured line of a Roman road between Caister on Sea and a section of Roman road at Smallburgh passes through this area (see record for NMR Linear 361; and Gurney 2005 in (S4)).

As described above, the precise form and extent of the enclosure is uncertain. Its plan may have been a rectangle measuring approximately 121m by 63.5m.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 12 October 2006.