NHER 43348 (Monument record) - Cropmarks of rectilinear enclosures or fields and ditches

March 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Cropmarks of rectilinear enclosures and linear ditches of possible medieval to post medieval and unknown date are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S2). These cropmarks are centred on TF 7341 3774 and were previously recorded as part of NHER 12829. Two incomplete of adjoining rectilinear enclosures are present in the north of this group of cropmarks. The northern enclosure is the most complete and lies on a roughly west to east axis with internal dimensions of 105m by 76m. Adjoining its southern side is a slightly trapezoidal enclosure, which measures at least 108m by 66m internally. A ring ditch of a probable Bronze Age round barrow (NHER 43346) is present within the northern enclosure. The relationship between the ring ditch and enclosures is not clear, and it is possible that the barrow mound had been levelled by the time that the enclosure was constructed. A linear ditch in the southeast corner of the group lies on the same alignment as the enclosures and appears to cut across a ring ditch cropmark at TF 7350 3761 suggesting that is also of a post-Bronze Age date. The two enclosures appear to lie on the same alignment as fields marked on a 1631 estate map of Sedgeford (S4). Although it is difficult to make an exact comparison between this map and the modern landscape, it is possible that these cropmarks relate to fields of medieval to early post medieval date.

Also present in the southern part of this group of cropmarks are a number of other linear ditches. The majority of these lie on a roughly west to east alignment, which differs from that of the enclosures and the modern field pattern. At least one of the ditches appears to cut across the southern enclosure, suggesting that the ditches belong to a different phase or period of activity. To the south of the enclosures, the linear ditch cropmarks cross the area of a small Bronze Age barrow cemetery (NHER 12829). One of the ditches appears to cross a ring ditch at TF 7339 3767, whilst another parallel ditch seems to stop either side of an adjacent ring ditch at TF 7340 3764. It is possible that one of the barrow mounds had been levelled by the time the ditches were dug and that the other had not. These ditches appear to form an incomplete rectilinear field system but their date is unknown.
J. Albone (NMP), 06 March 2006.