NHER 43790 (Monument record) - Cropmarks of ditches of unknown but possibly Roman date

June 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A group of cropmark ditches of unknown, but possibly Roman date are visible on aerial photographs in-between the A149 and Long Lane, Potter Heigham (S1). The site is centred on TG 4020 2002. It is probable that these ditches were field boundaries, or in the case of the double ditched feature, a trackway. The watching brief for the Bacton to Great Yarmouth pipeline recorded a ditch of potentially similar alignment within the vicinity of this site that dated to the Roman period (NHER 34000). It is therefore likely that these ditches identified on the aerial photographs are also Roman in date, although the relationship between the cropmark features and the excavated ditch is not yet known. These cropmarks are located on the southwestern edge of a larger multiphase cropmark site (NHER 43791).

The site consists of a double ditched linear feature running from approximately TG 4023 2007 to TG 4024 2002. The ditches are 6.5m apart. The ditch excavated during the watching brief (NHER 34000) was aligned roughly N-S and although the whole of the cropmark double ditched feature is not aligned north to south, some sections are, in particular those towards the southern end, which would have towards the location of the pipeline. Two other ditches were also mapped running roughly perpendicular to this double ditched feature. One running from TG 4018 1997 to TG 4022 1997, aligned east to west, and another from TG 4014 2006 to TG 4022 2007.
S. Massey (NMP), 12 June 2006.