NHER 43713 (Monument record) - Possible medieval clay and peat extraction, Brayden Marshes and Horsey Mere

March 2005. Norfolk NMP.
Several possible areas of medieval peat and clay extraction are visible on aerial photographs on Brayden Marshes (S1) to the immediate north and south of Horsey Mere (NHER 13507). The site is centred on TG 4449 2268. These possible cuttings are visible as slightly sunken and wetter areas within the surrounding marsh and some of these features appear to have been cut by post-medieval drainage ditches (NHER 43711), such as at TG 4423 2313. Similarly amorphous shaped features have been mapped to the south on Heigham Holmes (NHER 27280) and to the west on the Poor Allotment and Cotton’s marsh (NHER 32157), where the aerial photograph anomalies corresponding with former Broads marked on historic maps.

Not all the water-filled pits are convincing examples of extraction sites, such as the smaller pits centred on TG 4440 2298 and TG 4442 2283, which may have a more recent origin. A large area, rather than individual features, has been defined on the NMP map along the eastern edge of the Horsey Mere; this is due to a lot of the sunken areas being quite indistinct and therefore not mapped.

Some of the Broads in this area are the result of clay, rather than just peat, extraction, such as Heigham Sound and Horsey Mere (S2; p87). The soils map for the Brayden Marshes area would also indicate that these pits would have been predominantly cut for clay extraction, although it is possible that some peat was also extracted, as it is extremely close to the edge of the alluvial clay deposits associated with the Thurne valley.
S. Massey (NMP), 29 March 2005.