NHER 30304 (Monument record) - Cropmark of possible Roman enclosures and linear features

5 July 1989. NAU aerial photography.
Linear cropmarks forming rectangles of various sizes.
D. Edwards (NAU).

July 2001. Norfolk NMP. (Site extended).
Within the northwest of the area is an approximately north to south aligned double-ditched droveway or track with a widened, funnel-like southern end (S1). There is a considerably more narrow droveway or track running westwards from the northern end of this feature. To the southwest are series of linear features, also aligned on approximately north to south and east to west alignments, forming rectangular enclosures or fields. There is a relatively small square enclosure at (TF 6679 3252) which may actually represent the site of a structure. The feature has a length of 9m and width of 7m (S1).
These features lie to the west of (and are almost certainly contemporary with) the relatively extensive field system NHER 26626, which is believed to largely date from the Late Iron Age and Roman periods. This may well be the westernmost area of ditched land division during this period, as the land further to the west is most likely to have been salt marsh. It does suggest, however, that the land was intensively divided all the way across the carrstone/sand belt. The area on the salt marsh edge may also have been particularly important for its proximity to grazing land, fishing and salt extraction works, one of which is to the immediate southwest (NHER 16500). The River Ingol, to the immediate north, may well have been a navigable waterway at this time.
Within the western part of this area there is also an extensive irregular positive cropmark (TF 6679 3243) similar in its dark tone to the ditches (S2). This feature may be a natural phenomenon except that part of its western and southern sides are bounded by straight edges, in alignment with the enclosure ditches. This may be a natural feature such as a pond or bog, that has been partially canalised or landscaped, but it may also represent an extraction pit.
M. Brennand (NMP), 16 July 2001.