NHER 27664 (Cropmark and Earthwork) - Cropmark of a Bronze Age double ring ditch

September 2005. Norfolk NMP.
Cropmarks of a double ring ditch, probably a Bronze Age round barrow, are visible on aerial photographs (S1) and (S2). This cropmark is located at TG 4753 1366. The ring ditch is slightly sub-circular in plan. It has a narrow outer ditch with an external diameter of 27m. The inner ditch is up to 2.3m wide with an external diameter of 22m. It is likely that this ring ditch is of Bronze Age date and that it relates to a round barrow. Within the northern half of the ring ditch are cropmarks of two sub-rectangular pits. These measure approximately 3m long by 1.5m wide and it is possible that they are graves associated with the barrow. The barrow appears to have formed the focus for part of a Roman field system (NHER 30627). It lies on the line of a northwest to southeast field boundary ditch. Although this ditch crosses the outer ditch of the round barrow, it does not appear as a cropmark over the central area of the barrow. An adjoining southwest to northeast aligned ditch crosses a small part of the internal area of the barrow. The absence of these ditches within the central area of the barrow suggests that it was still an earthwork when the field system was laid out, with the field boundary ditches stopping at the edge of the mound. A later ditch of probable medieval date crosses the ring ditch, indicating that the barrow had been levelled by that time. This round barrow was located on the western edge of a small hill at 10m OD. A curved section of ditch cropmark located 90m to the east of this barrow, may relate to another ring ditch (NHER 27696).
J. Albone (NMP), 27 September 2005