NHER 39034 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Probable post medieval boundary banks and ditches in The Warren

December 2004. Norfolk NMP.
The earthworks of probable post medieval boundary banks and ditches are visible on aerial photographs within the Warren, Northrepps (S1) and (S2). The site is centred on TG 2440 4037. These are likely to define former divisions and woodland belts and possibly also paths through the Warren. An elongated mound also visible may be an artificial rabbit warren, although this is not certain. This area has obviously been quarried quite heavily during the post medieval and modern period. Several groups of small pits visible within the Warren (NHER 39037) may also relate to post medieval quarrying, although it is more likely that they are World War Two weapons pits.

An L-shaped earthwork ditch, 2.5m wide, is visible running from TG 2427 4045 to TG 2427 4036 (S1). The majority of this boundary is flanked by a bank to the west. This boundary runs up a slight combe running up the side of the hill. It therefore seems likely that this boundary may have defined a path across the Warren. At the base of the slope and the ditch is an elongated mound, measuring 40m by 7m. If the name ‘The Warren’ refers to an area where rabbits were kept, then it is possible that this low mound is an artificial warren. However it is possible that the feature is either natural or a mound or material created during the construction of the boundary.

To the east of this are a series of parallel stretches of earthwork bank, some of which have been truncated by quarrying (S1) and (S2). These banks run intermittently from TG 2436 4039 to TG 2442 4031 and from TG 2444 4039 to TG 2449 4032. The western group appears more fragmentary, although this is likely to be a product of the later quarrying, and it has at least one double bank component. The eastern banks appear to relate to in part to one of the existing Warren boundaries, although the lie of the bank appears to have been cut by the present route of the path. The eastern end of the Warren in particular has been quite heavily quarried for gravel. A pronounced flat mound visible at TG 2452 4034 in 1946 (S1) was not mapped as it appeared to sit within an area of post medieval to modern quarrying. This was considered either a feature created by the extraction or perhaps constructed to act as a platform for some machinery or equipment.
(S1) and (S2)
S. Massey (NMP), 03 December 2004.