NHER 31751 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of a ring ditch, possibly a Bronze Age round barrow

29 June 1990. NAU air photography.
Two overlapping ring ditches (one is very faint) (S1).
D. Edwards (NAU).

The central grid reference for the site has altered from TG 0516 1638 to TG 0516 1640.

October 2007. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of a ring ditch, probably representing the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow, are visible on aerial photographs to the south of Elsing Church (S1-S2). The ring ditch is centred on TG 0516 1640, measures 21m in diameter and the southwestern side is not clearly visible on the aerial photographs due to geological cropmarks. Another overlapping ring ditch has previously been identified at this site, although no definite evidence of a second ring ditch was confidently identified. Although possible traces of a smaller ring ditch to the southwest could tentatively identified on (S2), the feature was not felt to be of a convincingly archaeological origin and was therefore not mapped. However two overlapping ring ditches were visible on aerial photographs within the same field to the northwest (NHER 50637). It is possible that it is these cropmarks that the record refers to and the site was wrongly positioned on the map.

The site is located on the western slopes of a plateau to the south of the River Wensum and the barrow may have overlooked a minor beck or tributary of the Wensum which ran through Elsing.
S. Massey (NMP), 22 October 2007.