NHER 50910 (Monument record) - Cropmark field boundaries of medieval to post medieval date

February 2008. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of probable medieval to post medieval field boundaries possibly overlying the Roman town at Billingford (NHER 7206) are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S3). The site is centred on TG 0083 2034. The general layout of these fields is depicted on historical maps. Although it remains a possibility that some of the boundaries in use during the medieval to post medieval period are in fact Roman in origin or follow a similar alignment to those constructed during the Roman period. Although the lack of shared alignment between some of these boundaries and the Roman road (NHER 2796) and the Roman date enclosures and fields excavated within NHER 7206 to the south, could indicate that this field layout owes little to the earlier fields and settlement at this site.

However reference to the post medieval map of c. 1700-25 (S4) of fields to the south of the site indicates field boundary that runs along part of the expected route of the Roman road (NHER 2796). This map also indicates a strip fields running either parallel or perpendicular to this route. This would therefore suggest a possible continuation of a landscape feature running along this route, perhaps relating to the earthwork that has previously been recorded at this site. However no evidence of any such feature could confidently be identified on the available aerial photographs.

The field boundaries recorded under this number, rather than NHER 7206 or NHER 50976, are those that appear to relate to the strip field layout depicted on the earliest available historical map, the 1700-25 map of the Manor of Billingford (S4). Field boundaries that are depicted on the more recent and more easily accessible historical maps, such as the 1837 Tithe map (S5) have been omitted from the mapping.
Also see (S6)
S. Massey (NMP), 28 February 2008.