NHER 36490 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of probable Bronze Age round barrow

THE CROPMARKS DESCRIBED BELOW, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE LARGER RING DITCH, ARE NOW RECORDED AS NHER 39012 (THE SMALLER RING DITCH) AND NHER 38963 (THE LINEAR AND CURVILINEAR DITCHES).

28 June 1996. NLA air photography.
Site consisting of 2 ring ditches; one larger example at NGR TG 2690 3643, and a second, smaller one at TG 2689 3638. The W side of this ring is partially obscured, possibly by geology, although the ditch does have a definite causeway feature to the N.
At the S edge of the site is a strange double-ditched feature which curves around in a semicircle. It is not clear whether this is part of an elaborate trackway.
Enclosing, and seemingly overlying all these features, is a large rectilinear enclosure with associated linears, some of which appear to be post medieval field boundaries.
S. Massey (NLA), 8 October 2001.

December 2004. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks described above, with the exception of the larger ring ditch, are now recorded as NHER 39012 (the smaller ring ditch) and NHER 38963 (the linear and curvilinear ditches). NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 2692 3635 to TG 2690 3641.

The cropmarks of a ring ditch (the larger of the two described above) are visible on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 2690 3641. Although it is possible that a number of the ring ditches identified in this area represent round houses of Iron Age to Romano-British date, the relatively large size of the ring ditch described here would suggest that it is the ditch of a Bronze Age barrow. In addition, it appears to be overlain by the cropmark of a field boundary, part of a field system (NHER 38961) thought to date to the late prehistoric or Romano-British period.

The ring ditch is almost circular in plan. Breaks in the ditch circuit are as likely to be caused by the cropmark being masked as by genuine causeways. A possible internal pit, perhaps a grave or burial pit, has not been mapped as it is indistinguishable from pit-like cropmarks formed by the background geology. The ring ditch measures up to 21m in diameter. This contrasts with the smaller size of the ring ditch to its south (NHER 39012) which is also defined by a much wider ditch. It should be noted that due to a lack of suitable control points on the photographs, rectification of the oblique aerial photographs for this area was poor.
(S1)
S. Tremlett (NMP), 3 December 2004.