NHER 38650 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Possible World War One military site

June 2004, Norfolk NMP.
An irregular, sub-circular ring ditch of unknown date is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 2293 3765. The ring ditch surrounds a pit or depression. The site is located in an area of woodland on the eastern edge of Roughton Heath, a landscape notable for its remains of Bronze Age round barrows. It is possible that this site also represents a Bronze Age barrow, as it lies less than 300m to the east of a linear barrow cemetery (NHER 38632). However the absence of a mound when the surrounding ditch survives suggests an alternative interpretation is more plausible. A World War Two military training area (NHER 38619) lies just over 100m to the south of the ring ditch. Although the earthworks do not appear fresh on 1946 aerial photographs, the site may have had a military function and perhaps dates to an earlier phase of military activity, for instance World War One. It bears some resemblance to a military target identified on Kelling Heath (NHER 35551) which is also thought to date to World War One. Alternatively, the ring ditch, which lies adjacent to a track through the wood, which was felled in 1946 but subsequently replanted or allowed to regenerate, may be associated with some form of woodland management or woodland industry. The wood, named 'Nursery Plantation' on modern Ordnance Survey maps, is likely to be post-medieval in date, providing a date range for any woodland features within it.

The ring ditch, which is squarish on its north-west side, measures approximately twelve metres in diameter. The central pit is rather amorphous in plan and is up to 5m wide. (S1)
S. Tremlett (NMP), 2nd June 2004.