NHER 15105 (Monument record) - Norfolk Square

Context 1: Parch marks similar to those of site number NHER 15089.
Information from [1] who has seen the air photograph of NHER 15089.
D. Edwards (NAU) 31 July 1979.

Possibility that these marks may be equated with the site of the post mill in (S1), site no.3, the 'North Mill', built in about 1673, and demolished in about 1880.
D. Edwards (NAU) 31 July 1979.

(S1) in fact marks the North Mill at site NHER 15674, and as the freehold was purchased to build the station this seems to be correct; but no reason why another mill should not have stood here at an earlier date
Informant [1] has no record of a mill here.
E. Rose (NAU)

The above cropmarks are Context 1.
The county number now covers the remainder of the square which is graded by the Norfolk Historic Gardens Survey as two-star (regional importance), see (S2). It was designed as a speculative building project, the gardens laid out first and then the house plots along each side to north and south. However only a few houses on the north side were built in 1887 of three storeys with ironwork balconies and basements; the rest are of poorer quality and later date suggesting the original speculation failed. They are separated from the gardens by walks, with no vehicular access to the 'fronts' (the street sides being the 'rear'). The various circles are planted with ilexes.
In 1942 to 1943 the RAF took over the square and possibly this is the origin of the cropmarks.
Land still private to the householders.
See (S2) for details.

July 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A pattern of pit like cropmarks, probably relating to the use of the site by the RAF during World War Two, is visible on aerial photographs, (S3) and (S4), centred at TG 5305 0797. These may be the same as the 'parchmarks' described above. The interpretation of the cropmarks is uncertain. As mentioned above, there is no evidence for a mill having stood at this site, and this interpretation can probably be discounted. NHER 15089, to which the 'parchmarks' are compared, is a World War Two barrage balloon site, and a World War Two military origin for the site described here seems plausible. The cropmarks could mark the position of tethering blocks for a barrage balloon, although their rectilinear arrangement contrasts with the concentric circles of blocks seen at other sites (e.g. NHER 15089). The array of cropmarks bears more resemblance to the arrangement of blocks used to support antenna masts, such as those at the radio countermeasures station at Mundesley (NHER 38977). Whatever the site was used for during this period, it was a relatively short lived installation, presumably only in existence between 1942 and 1943; certainly, no trace of a military site is visible on photographs taken in 1944 (e.g. (S5)). Alternatively, the cropmarks may reflect the pattern of a formal planting scheme of late 19th to 20th century date.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 1 July 2005.