NHER 26939 (Monument record) - Probable medieval and post medieval banks and ditches

June 2001. Norfolk NMP.
A series of parallel banks and ditches run all along the land between the B1161 road and the cliff edge in Hunstanton, from TF 6760 4203 - 6727 4132, visible on Hunting Survey photographs from 1969 (S1) and BKS aerial photographs from 1988 (S2). They range in length from 7m to 54m. The widest bank is around 4m, although the majority of both the banks and ditches are under 2m wide. The linears are extremely regular and tend to be approximately 15m apart, although the wider banks are more infrequent. Reference to the 1689 Field Book (S3) indicates that these may be individual strip field boundaries. Many of those shown on the map appear to be of approximately the same width apart as those digitised. Although it is possible that some of the features mapped are elements of ridge and furrow within these strip fields. These boundaries appear to represent the first stages of enclosure of a previously open field system, with its origins in the medieval period. The larger enclosed areas depicted along this furlong in 1689 indicate that some tenants and farmers were amalgamating their strips into blocks, to create more regular field shapes.
S. Massey (NMP), 25 June 2001.

May-November 2004. Norfolk Rapid Coastal Zone Archaeological Survey.
Inter-tidal survey (Environmental Zone 5), Contexts 36-39:
Four V-shaped ditches were observed in the cliff face. They were stratigraphically below the topsoil and all cut the natural chalk. These may be a few of the parallel ditches recorded on the cliff top by NMP and interpreted as medieval or post medieval field boundaries. They could be the remains of field boundaries shown on a map from 1689 (S3) and on the Hunstanton enclosure map (S4).
See assessment report (S5) for further details.
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.421).
J. Allen (NLA), 13 April 2005. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 21 July 2019.