NHER 66910 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Earthworks of wood banks, trackways, drainage ditches and pits, of probable post medieval and unknown date, within Honeypot Wood

September 2023. Wendling Beck and Fransham Aerial Investigation and Mapping (AIM) Project.
Trackways, drainage ditches, and wood banks of probable post medieval date, and several undated pits, are visible as earthworks on visualised lidar data (S1). They are located within and around Honeypot Wood (NHER 49112), which is believed to be an area of Ancient Woodland, in existence since at least AD 1600. The features visible on the lidar appear to relate to the wood, and some are depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1st edition map (S2); most features visible on the map have not been mapped by the project. The drainage ditches, several of which are laid out broadly parallel to each other, oriented north-south, may indicate that the area was clear-felled when they were laid out. Some elements, such as the pits, could instead relate to the World War Two bomb store (NHER 35925), associated with Wendling Airfield (NHER 7275), which was also located within the wood. Most, however, are overlain by the Second World War features and clearly date to an earlier phase of activity. Aerial photographs taken in the early 1940s (S3, for example) show the wood before the Second World War bomb store reached its full extent. As the lidar survey was flown relatively recently (2017) it is probable that the earthworks still survive.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 12 September 2023.