NHER 50946 (Monument record) - Cropmarks of a trackway and/or boundary ditches of possible Roman date

March 2008. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of a possible trackway and/or boundary ditches of unknown, but probable Roman date, are visible on aerial photographs (S1) within the Police House Field cropmark site (NHER 50591). This site forms the northern part of the late Iron Age to Roman settlement at Watlington (NHER 39458) and has been excavated as part of NHER 39457. The site is centred on TF 6331 1094. The feature visible on aerial photographs would appear to represent part of a trackway, however comparison of this feature with an area of excavated enclosure ditches could indicate that it forms part of Roman settlement features. Other cropmarks relating to probable Roman features within Police House Field have been recorded under NHER 50945.

Components of this site appeared to match up with undated ditches excavated as part of the evaluation (S2) – see NHER 39457 for details. However further excavation of the entire field would suggest that this feature probably represents part of the Roman enclosures and boundaries on the site (full excavation details to follow, see NHER 39457). Although it must be noted that this feature follows the same alignment as the surrounding field divisions and it therefore remains a possibility that the cropmarks relate to former medieval to post medieval field boundaries. The final phasing and dating of the entire excavation is required to elucidate this matter.

The NMP mapping was shifted 15m to the west of its rectification-produced location to match up with the NAU excavations. These cropmarks were visible on the edge of an oblique aerial photograph taken of the 60-Acre field to the south, therefore the rectification process may have been relatively inaccurate due to the lack of control points around the actual cropmarks, hence the discrepancy in the locations. Although it is possible that the cropmarks and excavated features are not actually the same, but given the similarity between the two derived plans, this seems unlikely.
S. Massey (NMP), 05 March 2008.