NHER 4324 (Monument record) - Paddys Loke

Old road, pre Acle New Road, led from the Ferry near the present station, and preserves the former shoreline of Breydon Water. Marked on (S1). But where did it go to?
E. Rose (NAU).

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The road described above (named Paddys Loke on Ordnance Survey maps) and various associated drainage features are visible as earthworks, vegetation marks and soilmarks on aerial photographs (S2)-(S5). Paddys Loke itself is visible as a raised trackway between TG 5054 0893 and TG 5177 0900, with its most northerly point at approximately TG 5097 0931. (Its line may be continued to the southwest by a drain visible between TG 5052 0891 and TG 5034 0869). It still survives today, is depicted on both historic and modern Ordnance Survey maps, and consequently has not been mapped by the NMP. The drainage features, which have been mapped from the aerial photographs, are visible on its southern side, between TG 5061 0900 and TG 5149 0904.

Lark (1990) has suggested that Paddys Loke is possibly the oldest land route into Great Yarmouth from the west, and states that its course follows a former creek (S6). Certainly, its distinctively sinuous outline and the probable ronds and flood banks to its north and south (see below) would support this interpretation. It might perhaps have originated as a levee and/or flood bank beside the creek. It is marked in Williamson (1997) as a curvilinear dyke, a type of drainage feature typically derived from natural saltmarsh channels (S7). The fact that it acted as the boundary between several parishes, detached or otherwise (see Williamson 1997 (S8)), also suggests that it is a comparatively early feature. Whether it marked the former north shore of Breydon Water, as stated above, is not clear, neither is the date of this postulated shoreline. Similarly, whether it equates to the track depicted on Faden’s 1797 map of Norfolk (S1) perhaps remains open to question. Faden’s track appears to lie some distance to the south, skirting the northern edge of the estuary, which is itself shown as little different from today. If the two tracks are not the same, why Paddys Loke is not depicted on either Faden or Bryant’s maps, (S1) and (S9), is not clear. It is shown on Runham Tithe Map of 1839 (S10).

The features mapped by the NMP lie to the south of Paddys Loke. They appear to mirror its course and have been interpreted as drainage features associated with the road or, more specifically, the watercourse whose course the road is thought to follow. Towards the southwest end of the road, an extensive area of wet ground visible between TG 5061 0900 and TG 5082 0917 may have been a rond. The substantial bank to its southeast (visible between TG 5070 0904 and TG 5091 0916) was probably the accompanying flood bank and/or levee. Further banks and ditches to the east almost certainly represent similar drainage features, albeit of a less substantial nature. In particular, the narrow ditches mapped between TG 5114 0917 and TG 5131 0911 represent the low earthworks and faint vegetation marks of several poorly defined banks and gullies; the NMP mapping should be treated as a somewhat schematic sketch rather than a full and accurate depiction of the features. Drains to the north of the road, depicted on historic Ordnance Survey maps, e.g. (S11), and still extant on the 1940s aerial photographs (S2)-(S4) (and consequently not mapped by the NMP), may 'mirror' the drainage features to the south. For example, the drain between TG 5061 0907 and TG 5084 0926 could have been a soke dyke associated with a flood bank, which in turn marked the extent of the channel’s northern rond. The location of a probable saltern mound (NHER 4322) to the northwest of the line of the postulated saltmarsh creek could also be significant. The date of the drainage features is not known. Those with a relatively linear appearance and those depicted on the various historic maps may be of post medieval date. Given the possibly medieval origin of the road, however, a similarly early origin for at least some of the drainage features seems probable.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 26 May 2006.