NHER 30622 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks and soilmarks of possible medieval to post medieval roads

14 April 1979. OS air photography.
Field between Five Acre Lane, Pheasants Walk and New Plantation.
Soilmarks of roads, diverging from north towards southwest and southeast corners of present field. Also a possible east to west road in north of field.
Copy of aerial photograph in file but marks hardly visible on this - more clear on original.
Noted by B. Cushion (NLA), shown to E. Rose (NLA), 27 May 1994.

April 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Cropmarks of roads of probable medieval to post medieval date are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S3). The central grid reference for these cropmarks has been amended from TM 31 89 to TM 3155 8905. A curvilinear negative cropmark is present for 430m between TM 3135 8884 to TM 3144 8926. It is 9m wide and represents the compacted or metalled surface of a road. It is flanked on each side by positive cropmarks measuring up to 8m across, which represent roadside ditches. This road is marked on Faden’s 1797 map of Norfolk (S4) and is likely to be of medieval to early post medieval date. It had gone out of use by the time to the 1812 Earsham enclosure map (S5) when only its southern part was depicted. The northern part of this cropmark had been destroyed by quarrying by 1995 (S6) and the modern Ordnance Survey map suggest that more has subsequently been lost. A second similar cropmark is present further to the west. It has roughly northwest to southeast alignment and extends for 192m between TM 3164 8906 and TM 3174 8889. No roads are shown on this alignment on either Faden’s map or the enclosure map. However, it does correspond to the position of a field boundary on the enclosure map, which may have preserved the line of an earlier road.
J. Albone (NMP), 12 April 2006.

November 2017. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of site of proposed quarry extension to north-west of Old Railway Road (Area 1).
Although the survey area coincided with the line of the easternmost probable road there was no clear evidence for surviving remains associated with this feature. All that was identified was a narrow linear anomaly likely to represent a ditch associated with a later field boundary (which fossilised the line of the former road).
See NHER 65420 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2022.

November-December 2017. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of site of proposed quarry extension to north-west of Old Railway Road (Area 1).
Although a trench was placed across the line of the probable road no associated remains were identified. The only feature revealed was the ditch that had been identified by the preceding geophysical survey. As noted above this represents a field boundary established after the road fell out of use.
See report (S7) and NHER 65420 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2022.