NHER 50818 (Monument record) - Site of possible Iron Age to Roman period field system

January 2008. Norfolk NMP.
Some of the cropmarks described below were previously recorded as part of NHER 51021, 50599 and 29561.
Fragmentary cropmarks of unknown date are visible on aerial photographs (S1)-(S12), centred at TG 2744 1509. They may represent the remnants of a field system of possible Iron Age to Roman date. The site forms part of an area of complex multi-period cropmarks (NHER 50811), of which it appears to be one of the earliest elements. Although some elements of the site appear to respect the outline of a possible Bronze Age enclosure (NHER 29561), others overlie it, suggesting that they post-date this at least; their relationship with a second possibly Bronze Age enclosure (NHER 50758) is not certain. The orientation of the field boundaries and trackways that make up the site is generally at odds with that of the modern field pattern, and of cropmarks dating to later phases of activity with which they overlap, comprising field boundaries and enclosures of probable medieval and/or post medieval date (NHER 36449, 50817 and 50825). The cropmarks share their orientation and general character with similarly fragmentary field system remnants visible to the east (NHER 50726) and northeast (NHER 50714). These in turn are reminiscent of an extensive group of coaxial field systems of probable Iron Age and/or Roman date identified over large areas of the uplands of Norfolk’s Broads zone (see Albone et al. 2007 (S13)). A similar date is therefore likely for the cropmarks described here, although an earlier origin cannot be ruled out given their proximity to the two possibly prehistoric enclosures. Finds ranging in date from the Mesolithic to the post medieval period have been recovered from the area.
The cropmarks are so fragmentary that any morphological characteristics are difficult to define, but a northeast-southwest and northwest-southeast orientation is clear, and a broadly co-axial pattern possible. Notable elements include a trackway visible between TG 2714 1468 and TG 2706 1482. At its northern end this meets the cropmarks (not mapped) of what may have been a palaeochannel, where also, in the angle created by the trackway’s junction with another boundary, there is a possible ring ditch, perhaps the site of a round house. The latter, which is visible at TG 2707 1482, has a diameter of 4.5m. As with NHER 50726 to the east, it was not always easy to assign the cropmarks to a particular phase, and the origin and archaeological significance of those described here is not always clear. Overall, however, the shared orientation of the cropmarks and their persistent character indicates that the site as a whole is almost certainly genuine, even if there is some uncertainty regarding individual elements.
Also see (S14)
S. Tremlett (NMP), 24 January 2008.