NHER 27266 (Monument record) - Field system of possible medieval date

PREVIOUSLY RECORDED UNDER NHER 34027.
5 September 1970. Ordnance Survey air photography.
Positive cropmarks.
3 x linear feature.
Multiple linear features at varience with the modern field system.
D. Voisey (NLA), 11 January 1996.

PREVIOUSLY RECORDED UNDER NHER 29794.
29 July 1986. NAU air photography.
Trackways and linear marks.
D. Edwards (NLA).

March 2005. Norfolk NMP.
Some of the cropmarks described below were previously recorded as NHER 29794 and 34027.

A field system, defined by trackways and/or double-ditched boundaries, is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1-7), centred at TG 4985 1535. A medieval date for the field system can be postulated but in the absence of further supporting evidence it could date to any period from the prehistoric to the early post-medieval. Part of the site was excavated but this produced no dating evidence for the features (NHER 29794; S8; Sarah Bates, NAU, pers. comm.). The orientation, however, of most of the mapped features is at odds with, and presumably pre-dates, the modern field pattern, which derives from that depicted on 19th-century maps (e.g. S9). At the same time, some elements are contiguous with the later field pattern shown on historic maps (e.g. at TG 5017 1560) suggesting a certain degree of overlap between the two periods. In addition, its morphology contrasts with the field systems of probable prehistoric to Romano-British date mapped to its north-west (NHER 27259). Other of the mapped cropmarks, i.e. those oriented north-to-south at an angle to the main part of the site, are either depicted on Ormesby Tithe Map (S9) or lie parallel to field boundaries shown on the map, suggesting a post-medieval date for these elements of the site. The field system is visible across an area measuring approximately 850m by 530m and is broadly rectilinear in its layout.

It should be noted that a second trench has been excavated within the area of the site (NHER 29794; S8; Sarah Bates, NAU, pers. comm.). This was located to investigate a penannular 'enclosure', visible on aerial photographs and thought to represent an archaeological feature (S10). This is one of three circular cropmarks visible in the area (S4), all of which probably represent geological features rather than buried archaeology and consequently have not been mapped. The natural origin of the westernmost of these cropmarks was confirmed by the excavated trench.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 17 March 2005.