NHER 39112 (Cropmark and Earthwork) - Cropmark of ring ditch

December 2004. Norfolk NMP.
A possible large ring ditch may be visible on aerial photographs to the immediate west of Beckett’s Plantation, Roughton (S1). It is possible that this ring ditch represents the plough levelled site of a Bronze Age round barrow. The find of a Neolithic polished axe in close vicinity (NHER 6470) could even indicate an earlier date for the site. However the archaeological origin of this cropmark is not definite and it is possible that it is geological or even agricultural in origin. The potential cropmark is only visible on one set of aerial photographs from 1946 (S1) and the feature is more prominent on one frame.
The ring ditch is centred on TG 2206 4034 and measures roughly 28m in diameter. The feature is not perfectly circular, with several flattened sections of the arc. The site is located on the neck of a broad valley in-between two spurs of higher land. The land then drops away to the north. This topographic position would not normally be associated with the location of Bronze Age barrows, although not all are located on the upper slopes and ridges.
S. Massey (NMP), 17 December 2004.

November 2018. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of proposed development site.
This survey identified no evidence for surviving sub-surface remains associated with this possible ring-ditch. It should though be noted that this survey also failed to identify any trace of two former field boundaries shown on 19th-century maps - suggesting conditions were possibly not particularly conducive to the production of measurable magnetic anomalies.
Information from draft report. See NHER 68676 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 21 October 2024.