NHER 36746 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of post medieval field boundaries and/or drains

18 July 1996. NLA air photography (S1).
Part of an irregular, sub-rounded enclosure ditch (possible) in corner of field.
Additional linear cropmarks are field boundaries.
M. Brennand (NLA), 3 December 2001.

May 2011. Norfolk NMP.
NMP mapping has resulted in the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 1328 0219 to TG 1338 0194.
The possible enclosure and additional linear features described above are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs, together with the cropmarks and soilmarks of more substantial field boundaries and/or drains to their south (S1)-(S3). The latter consist of two broad, embanked boundaries which meet at an angle, together with several narrower, subsidiary boundaries arranged perpendicular to them. They appear to pre-date Wymondham Tithe Map of 1839 (S4), being absent from the map and in most cases cutting across the field pattern depicted. The substantial east-west orientated boundary is also abutted by an infilled pit (at TG 1326 0175), suggesting that it is the earlier feature. This presumably ‘early’ pattern becomes less apparent towards the northwestern corner of the site where the cropmarks representing the postulated enclosure described above (centred at TG 1330 0219) appear to conform with the Tithe pattern although they are again not actually shown. Within this pattern the supposed enclosure appears to be simply additional field boundaries rather than anything more distinctive.
The significance of the ‘early’ boundaries is confused by the difficulty of identifying them definitively as boundaries rather than drains (or more recent agricultural marks, both of which might well cut across contemporary patterns of enclosure), and with the inability to draw clear-cut distinctions between different phases of field boundaries and systems. Overall the site forms part of an extensive post medieval field pattern, with traces of potentially earlier elements, visible as cropmarks/soilmarks and extant boundaries stretching from the outskirts of Wymondham in the west to the parish boundary to the east. These surround the presumed medieval ringwork of Moot Hill (NHER 9438), and while most are depicted on the Tithe Map (and have therefore not been recorded) their origins and survival, in particular in relation to this more substantial monument, are perhaps worthy of consideration. The other more complex and substantial elements not depicted on the Tithe Map, additional to the field boundaries described here, are recorded as NHER 54633-6.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 31 May 2011.