NHER 12155 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of ring ditches

1973.
Ring ditches claimed on Cambridge University Committee of Aerial Photography list of air photographs at this very approximate grid reference.

5 July 1973. CUCAP air photography of site.
D. Edwards (NAU) 1 February 1989.

Grid reference confirmed, two ring ditches.
D. Edwards (NAU) and E. Rose (NAU) 26 April 1989.

June 2004, Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 2015 3855 to TG 2012 3862.
The two ring ditches described above are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 2012 3862. In addition, a third ring ditch is visible 90m to their southeast on the same aerial photographs. Their morphology, topographical location and archaeological context would suggest that they are the remains of Bronze Age round barrows, similar to the numerous examples mapped to their east and south, principally in the parish of Roughton. A curvilinear ditch, which shares an alignment with the two adjacent barrows, may be a contemporary feature, perhaps even defining a double round barrow. A faint, circular cropmark visible at TG 2024 3864 may show the location of a fourth ring ditch but this is not clear enough on the consulted aerial photographs to confirm whether it is of archaeological origin and consequently it has not been mapped.
The three ring ditches are all of a similar size and shape, being slightly sub-circular in plan and measuring approximately 16 to 18m in diameter. The northwestern ring ditches may enclose internal pits, possibly graves, but the background geology is conducive to the formation of pit-like cropmarks and the pits are therefore too uncertain to map. The cropmarks of other linear features, visible on the same aerial photographs, appear to be field drains or geology and have consequently not been mapped.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 9 June 2004.