NHER 11867 (Monument record) - Cropmarks of possible Iron Age to Roman period settlement

On field on edge of two maps.
Cropmarks of two large enclosures running southeast to northwest and sharing a common central boundary.
At the southeast end they are rectangular with rounded corners, abutting on Postles Lane in such a way as to leave triangular spaces: but halfway up their length the sides change alignment so as to run almost east to west.
They are overlain by the cropmark of a T-shaped track, and disappear under different crop in the next field.
Aerial photographs checked E. Rose (NAU), 1 December 1976.

28 June 1996. NLA aerial photography.
Large enclosures still visible.
The previously identified T-shaped trackway can be seen to be part of a much wider system of co-joined trackway, defining and forming rectilinear enclosed areas, possibly relating to settlement and/or fields.
Two circular features are visible, these may be ring ditches, although they are quite small and irregular.
S. Massey (NLA), 9 October 2001.

December 2004. Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 2825 3500 to TG 2819 3510.

The cropmarks described above are visible on aerial photographs (S1-6). The relationships between different elements of the site suggest several phases of activity, but these have the appearance of being gradual changes to a single site over time, rather than being chronologically distinct groups of features. The large polygonal enclosure is the most distinctive element of the complex but it may not be an original feature of the site. A small, almost square enclosure at the centre of the site (at TG 2821 3509) seems likely to be an earlier feature. Its north-west corner is abutted by the trackway which runs along its west side. This in turn, joins a trackway to its north (at TG 2821 3516) and both have the appearance of having been originally open features which were subsequently enclosed within the polygonal enclosure. In broad terms the site is reminiscent of some of the probable Iron Age to Romano-British settlement sites mapped from cropmarks in Lincolnshire (S7). The size of the site and its rather irregular layout suggests that it was probably a large farmstead or a minor settlement. At its eastern edge it is overlain by the cropmarks of further field boundaries (NHER 27290), but these are of post-medieval date.

The cropmarks, which comprise enclosures, trackways, ditches (probably field boundaries), a number of pits or post holes and two possible round houses, are visible across an area measuring approximately 600m by 400m. The polygonal or pentagonal enclosure measures approximately 200m by 170m. The square enclosure within it measures 48m by 45m. Around it a number of other rectilinear enclosures are partially visible, some of which form a grid-like pattern. The two ring ditches are both sub-circular and incomplete in plan. The ring ditch at TG 2815 3506 measures up to 10m long and 10m wide; the one at TG 2831 3506 is up to 12m long and 10m wide. It should be noted that the rectification of oblique photographs for this area was very poor due to the rather irregular topography at the site which is not captured by the Ordnance Survey 5m contour data.
(S1-7)
S. Tremlett (NMP), 2 December 2004.