NHER 49262 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of ring ditches forming a small barrow cemetery

March 2007. Norfolk NMP
Cropmarks of four ring ditches relating to Bronze Age round barrows are visible on aerial photographs (S1). These cropmarks are centred on TG 3857 1858. Four previously unrecorded ring ditch cropmarks forming a small barrow cemetery are present. The largest of the ring ditches is located at the southeast end of the group at TG 3860 1856. It has a sub-circular plan with a narrow ditch and an external diameter of 30m. This ring ditch is crossed by a medieval to post medieval field boundary ditch cropmark (NHER 49263). The fact that the ditch cropmark is visible across the whole width of the ring ditch suggests that any barrow mound had been completely levelled by the time the field boundary ditch was excavated.
The second ring ditch is located at TG 3855 1859 has a sub-circular plan with a narrow ditch and an external diameter of 19.5m. Field boundary ditch cropmarks extend up to this ring ditch but do not cross over it, indicating that a barrow mound probably survived on the field boundary as an earthwork. A short linear ditch cropmark is present within the ring ditch on a northwest to southeast alignment. It does not appear to be part of a field boundary ditch and could be to a narrow antiquarian excavation trench, or possibly a saw pit or post mill constructed in the barrow mound. Further to the northwest is a smaller ring ditch, with a sub-circular plan and an external diameter of 9m. At the northern end of the group is double ring ditch cropmark, which is cut by the line of School Road. The outer and inner ditches appear to have a sub-circular plan with external diameters of 14m and 6m respectively.
This group of ring ditch cropmarks form a small barrow cemetery of probable Bronze Age date. They are located at approximately 4m OD. on the gentle southeast facing slope of a small dry valley.
J. Albone (NMP), 21 March 2007

November 2013. Trial Trenching.
A single trench excavated across the line of the largest, eastern ring-ditch failed to identify any corresponding sub-surface remains. This result is not easy to explain, particularly as this work identified several features associated with later linear cropmark features (NHER 49263) – suggesting the site had not seen significant plough erosion.
See report (S2) and NHER 61907 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 31 October 2016.