NHER 30618 (Monument record) - Winterton Decoy

22 June 1981. Ordnance Survey air photography (S1).
Cropmarks noted by B. Cushion (NLA) and shown to E. Rose May 1994.
A perfect decoy with pipes.
E. Rose (NLA), 27 May 1994.

White's directories (1836 and 1845) (S2 to S3) refer to a 30 acres decoy.
D. Gurney (NLA), 28 December 2000.

Informant [1] states that White's Directory 1836 (S2) and 1845 (S3) refer to Joseph Hume as having a 30 acre decoy here.
E. Rose (NAU), 9 January 2001.

19 July 1994. NLA air photography (S4).
Earthworks of decoy and pond still visible.
S. Massey (NLA), 24 April 2001.

January 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The duck decoy described above is visible as an earthwork and vegetation marks on aerial photographs (S5 to S9), centred at TG 4825 2085. This is almost certainly the two or two and a half acre decoy, notable for its small size, which was built by George Skelton in 1807, as described by various documentary sources (S10 to S12). It was originally constructed for Mr Huntingdon, from whom it passed to Mr Joseph Hume (S10). References to the decoy measuring approximately 30 acres, mentioned above and in a number of sources, (S3) and (S13), which was also owned by Mr Hume and located at Winterton, may relate to this site, making an error with regards to its size, or may relate to a separate site. The decoy was abandoned in 1875 (S14).

The decoy, as visible on the consulted aerial photographs, was an approximately two acre (78.2 hectares) site comprising a central pond with six curvilinear arms equally spaced around it, contained within an embanked circular enclosure. This matches the depiction of the decoy on historic maps, including the Ordnance Survey 1 inch (S15) and Winterton Tithe Map (S16). The general layout of the decoy and comparison with these maps suggests that all of the arms probably originally extended up to the circular enclosure. Clearly the earthworks of the shorter arms and probably the southwest quadrant of the outer enclosure had been partially levelled prior to the first photographs of the site being taken in 1944 (S5). It seems from the Tithe Map (S16) that parts of pre-existing field boundaries or drains were incorporated into the decoy enclosure; these are also visible on the aerial photographs but have not been mapped by the NMP. Vegetation marks on the aerial photographs visible in the area surrounding the decoy suggest that it was sited on an area of lower and/or wetter ground; this possibly corresponds with the site of a large pond (the central one of three) depicted on both Faden's and Bryant's maps of Norfolk (S17 to S18). Although parts of the decoy may have been damaged or destroyed when the central pond was remodelled after World War Two, much of it may still survive as an extant earthwork.

Variations in the way the earthworks show on the aerial photographs, and consequent difficulty in distinguished banks from ditches, means that the NMP mapping is somewhat schematic. Also, some areas were partially obscured by vegetation and have been extrapolated to an extent.

Known as Winterton Decoy, but in fact straddles the Winterton/Somerton parish boundary. The area is still named Decoy Wood on modern maps.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 9 January 2006.