NHER 50803 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of possible ring ditch of unknown date

January 2008. Norfolk NMP.
A possible ring ditch or oval enclosure is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1)-(S2), centred at TG 2607 1456. Its date and function are not known, and even its archaeological origin is uncertain. It lies within an extensive area of complex, multi-phase cropmarks (NHER 50802), comprising trackways, enclosures and probable field boundaries. Its positioning within these might suggest it represents a domestic or agricultural enclosure, perhaps a round house, probably of prehistoric or Roman date. Other ring ditches in the vicinity, however, are thought to be the remains of Neolithic or Bronze Age funerary monuments (e.g. NHER 50760 515m to the south, or NHER 50804 410m to the northeast), and a similar interpretation cannot be ruled out here. At the same time, the cropmarks are rather faint and intermittent, and might not reflect a ring ditch at all, but rather boundary ditches related to NHER 50802, or even background geology at the site or recent agricultural activity.

The postulated enclosure is oval in plan, although this might be exaggerated by it being visible at the edge of the oblique aerial photographs used to map the site and consequently being distorted by their rectification. It measures up to 23.5m long and 18m wide.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 15 January 2008.