NHER 29783 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Manor Farm, medieval or post medieval holloway and ditches

20 February 1989. NAU aerial photography.
Earthworks at Manor Farm. Appear to be tofts and hollow way.
D. Edwards (NLA).

July 1998. Visit.
Confirmed a shallow hollow way, around 8m wide in northeast of field, joining to a bank with flanking ditches extending
westwards. This continues to the north of garden as a depression to reappear in the meadow to west of house and north of drive as a sinuous feature. The whole alignment is shown on Faden as a track/roadway with common to the south in the eastern field. Features there are thus post-enclosure. Common, also to north of sinuous ditch in western field.
Enclosure Award (S1) confirms these points, but does not show continuous roadway as on Faden.
Map copy in file.
B. Cushion (NLA), 10 August 1998.

low earthworks in pasture field East of Manor Farm.
"Holloway" shown as track on Fayden. Visited by Brian Cushion July 1998 - not condsidered as a candidate for a survey. Pond - depression in centre of field, unfilled after cow drowned.
Comp. H. paterson, 16 December 1998.

The central grid reference for this site has been altered from TM 1159 9572 to TM 1185 9559.


March 2012. Norfolk NMP.
Assessment of the aerial photographs (S2-S7) and historic maps (S8-S9) for this site revealed that the features were previously more extensive and complex than previously recognised. The central grid reference for this site has been altered from TM 1159 9572 to TM 1185 9559 due to the expansion of the site to include tracks and boundaries to the east visible as soilmarks on the aerial photographs.
Closer inspection of the mapped features in relation to the road depicted on Faden’s map of 1797 (S8) would indicate that the sinuous hollow way running through the main part of the site is not in fact the road depicted on running across Wattlefield Common, rather it is a feature that runs into or is incorporated into it. The line of the actual Faden mapped road is likely to run along what is now the field boundary to the north of the main area of earthworks and then appears as an earthwork within the northeastern corner of main field. This route is then visible as a soilmark continuing to the east towards the parish boundary.
The NMP mapping of the site has added greater detail and complexity to the features previously recorded and shows that in addition to the main road across the common there are a number of associated tracks and paddocks, some of which are likely to be post-enclosure as the above record suggests. Although it is worth noting that few of them are depicted on the Tithe map for the area (S9) – other than those that appear to have been recut at a later date – see below. However the sinuous nature of many of these boundaries and tracks would potentially suggest an earlier medieval origin and more piecemeal development and their location on or near the edge of the common could indicate that some of these represent elements of common-edge settlement features and/or enclosures, in particular an area of possible platforms located at TM 1176 9571. It also seems likely that broader bank-like features recorded within the eastern part of the site are likely to have formed common-edge boundaries.
It must be noted that the line of some of the earthworks at the site have been incorporated into the line of later post medieval to modern drains and dykes and have consequently not been mapped in some places. The location of a short section of ditch flanked by banks, visible as a very spread soilmark at TM 1212 9521 (S7) has been included in the site, but not mapped as it was only partially visible on the edge of an oblique aerial photographs and was therefore not suitable for mapping.
S. Horlock (NMP), 07March 2012.