NHER 27967 (Monument record) - Possible Bronze Age barrow cemetery

October 2002. Norfolk NMP.
Group of possible round barrows visible on OS aerial photographs from 1969 (S1) and NMR oblique aerial photographs from 2002 (S2). The site consists of five round mounds visible within the dense vegetation on Salthouse heath. A great deal of caution needs to be applied to the interpretation of these as barrows. The mounds may be clusters of vegetation or large gorse bushes. The heath also had a massive amount of military training and activity, both during World War Two and after, therefore it is always possible that these mounds are the result of military action. At TG 0737 4224 is a 10m diameter round mound, which appears to be surrounded by a slight bank to the northeast and southwest. These possible surrounding banks are 1 to 2m wide and run from TG 0737 4224 to TG 0738 4224 and from TG 0737 4223 to TG 0736 4224. To the north at TG 0737 4229 is a large round mound, 10m in diameter. To the west at TG 0733 4227 is another mound, 8m across. Another mound is visible to the north TG 0733 4232, it is slightly oval in shape and measures 6.5 to 7.5m across. Located at TG 0739 4234 is another large round mound, 10 to 10.5m across. The whole of Salthouse heath is covered in evidence of Bronze Age barrows, ranging from large embanked barrows (NHER 6202) to the small ‘mini’ barrows of the later Bronze Age cremation cemetery to the west (NHER 6212), often only being 3-4m in diameter. The size of the mound identified within this site as possible barrows fit well into this massive size range. Further on-ground investigation of these sites is needed to ascertain the nature of these ‘mounds’ and whether they are indeed archaeological or vegetation. Given how well defined and high these round mounds appear to be from the oblique aerial photograph evidence (S2), it seems unlikely that these features have gone unnoticed during the many archaeological investigations of the heath, both antiquarian and modern.
S. Massey (NMP), 12 May 2003.