NHER 50804 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of possible ring ditch of probable prehistoric date

January 2008. Norfolk NMP.
Some of the cropmarks described below previously formed part of NHER 21124.

A possible ring ditch is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 2648 1471. Its size, over 20m in diameter, and topographic position, overlooking to the east the confluence of a small valley with Dobbs' Beck (a tributary of the Bure), both suggest it represents the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow. Other ring ditches and enclosures visible to the north and south on both sides of the beck have also been interpreted as prehistoric funerary and/or ceremonial monuments. The way in which the ring ditch fits within elements of the multi-phase enclosures, trackways and field boundaries (NHER 50802) that surround it, however, make a more domestic interpretation, as a round house for example, difficult to rule out entirely. Either way, prehistoric material has been found in the area, reinforcing its suggested prehistoric date, although a single Roman sherd has also been recovered (NHER 41871).
The ring ditch is defined by several curvilinear ditch segments but is not easy to distinguish from the other, more rectilinear cropmarks that surround it (NHER 50802). Some of the ditch segments (the east and north sides) appear to have been interpreted as part of a rectilinear enclosure (formerly part of NHER 21124; the other elements of the ‘enclosure’ are now recorded as part of NHER 50802). As mapped by the NMP, the ring ditch is roughly circular in plan and measures up to 21m in diameter. Its defining ditch is narrow and only visible intermittently. A pit-like cropmark near its centre could be a contemporary feature (holding a burial or votive deposit, for example) but could equally be a product of the background geology at the site.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 15 January 2008.