NHER 27956 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Undated banks and ditches

October 2002. Norfolk NMP.
Group of linear features consisting of banks and ditches traversing the heath, visible on RAF aerial photographs from 1950 (S1) and OS aerial photographs from 1969 (S1). The features are visible as earthworks on the heath in 1950 (S1), before the land was converted to arable, and hence the linears are showing as soilmarks in 1969 (S2). The linears all show as intermittent and interrupted features, although it is presumed that they would have originally been continuous. The most extensive linear appears to be a ditch which runs in fragmented form from TG 0693 4169 to TG 0745 4152. The longest section is 145m long and 1-2m wide. Another ditch runs to the south from TG 0693 4169 to TG 0702 4166. The line of this ditch is then continued by three section of ditch running from TG 0712 4169 to TG 0726 4159. In between these two sections of ditch is the remains of a fragmentary bank or line of compacted ground, visible in four sections from TG 0702 4167 to TG 0727 4158. The longest section being 72m long and it varies in width from 3-6.5m. Another section of bank and flanking ditches is visible to the north, running from TG 0699 4169 to TG 0735 4171. Two other less extensive linear features are visible running from TG 0737 4170 to TG 0744 4172 and from TG 0710 4154 to TG 0727 4152. There are several other groups of these linear features on the heath (SMR 27957-9), some of which are quite closely set and could perhaps be the remains of features similar to ridge and furrow. Although the majority, in particular this site, have the appearance of trackways or droveways. The dating of these features is quite hard at present, although they do seem to have some antiquity. The most extensive bank and ditch linear is cut across by Bixes Lane, a wide hollow way along which the parish boundary runs. This route way is likely to be at least Medieval in date. This would therefore imply that at least one set of these linears or trackways are pre-medieval in date. These features are presumably routes across the heath which were used persistently over a reasonable length of time. It is hard to know how far one could reasonably push back the date for these features. The rest of the archaeology mapped on the heath is potentially Neolithic to Bronze Age, although the assigning of such an early date for these linears would be a little presumptuous.
S. Massey (NMP), 8 May 2003.