NHER 49531 (Monument record) - Cropmarks of enclosures, trackways and ditches of unknown date

June 2007. Norfolk NMP
Cropmarks of trackways, enclosures and ditches of unknown and possibly Iron Age to Roman or medieval to post medieval date are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S4). These cropmarks are centred on TG 3039 0321 and were previously recorded as part of NHER 17367. Central to the group of cropmarks are several overlapping rectilinear enclosures. The largest of these has a slightly trapezoidal plan and external dimensions of 76m by 60m. It appears to overlie, or be sub-divided by, a series of smaller enclosures that continue to its west. A small, incomplete ring ditch cropmark is present within these enclosures. It has a 4m diameter and it is possible that it relates to a roundhouse of Iron Age date. All of these enclosures lie adjacent to a curving trackway cropmark and appear to be contemporary with it. This trackway forms a large C-shape, at least 200m across, around the site of St Mary’s Church (NHER 10311). A further section of trackway cropmark is present on a slightly different west to east alignment further to the east, leading towards Holverston Hall (NHER 20118). Other incomplete enclosure and linear ditch cropmarks, including a possible double-ditched boundary or trackway, are present.
The apparent spatial relationship between the curving trackway and church, suggest that it, and by extension the rectilinear enclosures adjoining it, are of medieval date. It is possible that the majority of the cropmarks are of late Saxon to post medieval date and relate to the former settlement of Holverston. However, it is also possible that the trackway cuts through the enclosures and that they are of Iron Age to Roman date. It is possible that they relate to a small settlement of that period. Cropmarks of post medieval field boundaries are also visible on the aerial photographs, but these were not mapped by the Norfolk NMP.
J. Albone (NMP), 15 June 2007