NHER 26829 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmark of late prehistoric pits or post holes

April 2002. Norfolk NMP.
Group of five alignments of pits, between 1.5m to 3m in diameter, visible on 1946 RAF aerial photographs (S1). Four of these alignments are roughly parallel. The southern two rows appear to define a trackway or some such similar routeway from TF 6800 3620 to TF 6805 3620. The longest alignment of pits is from TF 6810 3622 to TF 6810 3644. It has a slight dogleg or kink halfway along, at which point the alignment shifts approximately 5m slightly to the east. It is possible that these are in fact two separate alignments, which run off from each other. It is possible that these alignments are part of land division systems, however the pits are probably too large to have held posts, so these do seem to be pit, rather than post alignments.

The slight dogleg in the longer boundary does seem to correspond to a similar shaped boundary to the immediate west. The cropmarks do look very clear, so it is possibly that they are relatively recent features. They may be the result of some recent agricultural practice. Although it doesn’t seem to relate to any other elements of post medieval to modern landscape. It also doesn’t seem to bear any relationship to the site to the immediate south, NHER 19279, a Late Iron Age to Roman settlement and field systems. It is possible that this site is an early element of land division, possibly dating to the Late Bronze Age or Iron Age. The site is 200m west of a possible Bronze Age barrow (NHER 19280) and the area to the northeast, the Coppers, is the site of a spring and the focus for a quite concentrated cluster of prehistoric finds, dating from Mesolithic to Bronze Age.
S. Massey (NMP), 19 April 2002.