NHER 52280 (Landscape record) - Harford Farm barrow cemetery

June 2009. Norfolk NMP.
The presence of a Bronze Age barrow cemetery on the site of Harford Farm is well recorded from excavation (for details of the excavation see record NHER 9794 and (S1)) and aerial photographic evidence (S2-S5). The cemetery consists of at least six convincing barrows, five of which have been excavated, and a further four possible examples identified from aerial photography. The barrows within the cemetery are located on a hill-top overlooking the River Yare to the north and the River Tas to the southeast. The cemetery is located approximately 950m to the west of another major barrow group (NHER 51966), adjacent to the River Tas. Another possible barrow group is located approximately 650m to the east (NHER 16062). All of these monuments form part of a wider ceremonial and funerary complex focused on the river valleys of the Yare and the Tas and their confluence. The most significant and early components being the hengiform monuments at Arminghall (NHER 6100) and Markshall (NHER 9582).

The barrow cemetery is centred on TG 2242 0428, the largest component to the cemetery (NHER 52282 - excavated in 1938 and 1990) sits just southeast of this point. The monument represents the main focus of the cemetery and a group of three other barrows (NHER 52283-52285 - excavated in 1990) cluster around this point, TG 2246 0424. Another barrow is located just to the southeast of this cluster (NHER 52286 - not excavated), positioned to form a linear arrangement of three large barrows. Approximately 160m to the north of this group is a more isolated barrow (NHER 52281 - excavated in 1990) at TG 2244 0442, sitting on the northern edge of the hill-top overlooking the Yare. Another possible cluster of barrows, indicated by a group of ring ditches tentatively identified on the aerial photographs (NHER 52287) may represent another cluster within the wider cemetery, although these cropmarks are not as convincing as other components to the site.

The excavations indicated that all of the monuments dated to the 3rd to 2nd millennia and that the cemetery developed over a considerable period. Plough leveling and truncation of features meant that little remained of barrow mounds, evidence of the former mounds was visible on the aerial photographs for two of the barrows. Ploughing had potentially also destroyed much of the evidence for graves. Although central graves were indicated within three, maybe four of the ring ditches, any secondary or shallower graves appear to have been destroyed by the plough (S1). The barrow cemetery exhibits a broad range of barrow construction types, with two monuments being directly comparable and the group included ‘bowl’, ‘bell’ and ‘disc’ types.
S. Horlock (NMP), 25 June 2009.