NHER 31518 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of enclosures, fields and trackways of possible Iron Age date

20 June 1990. NAU aerial photography.
Rectilinear cropmarks/enclosure and linear cropmarks.
D. Edwards (NAU).

The central grid reference for this site has been altered from TG 159 102 to TG 1614 1032 due to the site being extended to include new cropmarks and those previously recorded under NHER 12791 and 12988.

September 2010. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of enclosures, fields and trackways of possible Early Iron Age date are visible on aerial photographs in the vicinity of Lodge Farm Costessey (S1-S5). The site is centred on TG 1614 1032. The tentative dating of this large area of cropmarks to the Early Iron Age is based on the dating of one of the eastern ditch segments to this period (S6-S7), see NHER 37646 and 39351 for details. The enclosure to the immediate south of Lodge Farm could easily have been interpreted as being either Iron Age to Roman or medieval to post medieval in date. However it is likely that the cropmarks represent more than one phase of features, in particular in the area to the south of Lodge Farm. If no components of the site had been dated through excavation a date of medieval to post medieval would probably have been assigned to the vast majority of the cropmarks, due to their apparent shared alignment with other components of the medieval to post medieval landscape, such as other historic field boundaries and the Costessey/Bawburgh parish boundary, which runs through the site. The eastern ditch of the enclosure appears to coincide with a boundary depicted on the Ordnance Survey First edition map, 1889 - 1891, (S9) indicating that the plan either represents several phases of features following similar alignments and therefore hard to separate without excavation, or that the entire enclosure is relatively late in date and unrelated to the similarly aligned excavated Iron Age ditch section to the east.
Finds in the area include Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman, plus medieval to post medieval artefacts (NHER 16398, 29047, 33842 & 53154, 37646 and 39351). The extreme western part of the site has been subject to a geophysical survey (S8). A number of possible ditches, pits and anomalies were identified (NHER 33842). A limited number of which corresponds with the cropmarks mapped in the area. Excavations within this area revealed Bronze Age date ditches or elongated pits, although none correspond with the NMP mapping (S8). See NHER 54472 for discussion of possible prehistoric ditches in this area. Two sections of ditch along the eastern edge of the site were also excavated (NHER 39351) (S7). No dating material was recovered and it was suggested that they may relate to post medieval boundaries, which may be the case, although the ditches are perpendicular to the boundaries dated to the Iron Age to the north and would appear to fit within that phase of cropmarks.
The main component of the site is an enclosure at TG 1601 1027. The enclosure shows signs of significant amendment and would appear to represent more than one phase of activity. The northwestern corner of the enclosure is either overlain by or abuts up to a slightly sinuous boundary, or possible trackway. The relationship is hard to ascertain from the current cropmark evidence. This boundary may continue to the northwest to join up with the trackway recorded to the west of the site, but this is not certain. The enclosure reveals evidence of internal subdivisions and it is possible that it represents a domestic site, however the presence of multiple trackways incorporated into the enclosure, at least one of which appears to be a later amendment, could suggest that the site is a stock enclosure.
The northern part of the site is characterised by slightly sinuous trackways, it is possible that these originally formed a continuous trackway, although there is a break in the mapping to the north of Lodge Farm. The trackway to the east of the site, which was previously recorded under NHER 12791, may be of Iron Age date, given its comparable route to the Iron Age boundary to the south. It is possible that this trackway diverts slightly around the probable Bronze Age round barrow (NHER 12791), would likely have been still reasonably extant during this period.
Finds in the area include Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman, plus medieval to post medieval artefacts (NHER 16398, 29047, 33842 & 53154, 37646 and 39351). The extreme western part of the site has been subject to a geophysical survey (S8). A number of possible ditches, pits and anomalies were identified (NHER 33842). A limited number of which corresponds with the cropmarks mapped in the area. Excavations within this area revealed Bronze Age date ditches or elongated pits, although none correspond with the NMP mapping (S8). See NHER 54472 for discussion of possible prehistoric ditches in this area. The undated ditch recorded within a test pit approximately 300m to the south of Lodge Farm (NHER 33423) follows a similar alignment to a double ditch boundary or trackway mapped in this area and it may be they are broadly contemporary and therefore of possible Iron Age date. Two sections of ditch along the eastern edge of the site were also excavated (NHER 39351) (S7). No dating material was recovered and it was suggested that they may relate to post medieval boundaries, which may be the case, although the ditches are perpendicular to the boundaries dated to the Iron Age to the north and would appear to fit within that phase of cropmarks.
S. Horlock (NMP), 7 September 2010.

July 2013. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of large proposed development area surrounding Lodge Farm, including the fields in which the main cropmark groups were identified.
Although this survey identified several linear anomalies that appear to correspond with previously identified features, there was little evidence for surviving remains associated with the many of the other cropmarks.
See report (S10) and NHER 33423 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 1 December 2016.

January and November-December 2014. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of large proposed development area. A total of 94 trenches were excavated in the fields surrounding Lodge Farm, many of which were positioned in order to target the previously identified cropmark features. The results of this work were markedly different to those of the preceding geophysical survey with a significant number of linear and discrete features identified, many of which had not previously been identified. Many of the cropmarks were found to correspond with surviving sub-surface remains, although unfortunately dating evidence was fairly scarce.
Unsurprisingly there was a pronounced concentration of remains in the field to the south of Lodge Farm, in the area where the densest group of cropmarks was identified. Dating evidence recovered from features that appeared to correspond with cropmarks included small quantities of Iron Age and Roman pottery. Two clusters of Roman features were also present in this area suggesting that at least some of the undated ditches were probably of a similar date. Several other cropmark features were found to be associated with features that also produced small amounts of Roman pottery, including a ditch associated with an enclosure identified at the western edge of the site. An extensive cropmark that runs eastwards from Lodge Farm was also found to be associated with a ditch that produced sherds of Roman pottery. The dating evidence is significant as this feature appears to be a continuation of a ditch that was dated to the Early Iron Age during the excavation of the site to the east (NHER 37646). It was the dating of this feature that led to the suggestion that these cropmarks were potentially of predominantly Iron Age date. The results of this evaluation suggest that, on balance, the majority of these features were most likely associated with later phases of activity, although it remains possible that at least some are of Middle to Late Iron Age date.
Although a number of ditches were identified that appeared to correspond with the cropmarks in the north-western corner of the site, unfortunately none of these features produced any dating evidence.
See report (S11) and NHER 33423 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 1 December 2016.