NHER 39160 (Monument record) - Medieval to post medieval ditches and trackways

December 2004. Norfolk NMP.
Some of the cropmarks described below were previously recorded as NHER 16016.

A multi-phase field system is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1-6), centred at TG 3220 3521. The cropmarks appear to represent trackways and field boundaries relating to at least two phases of land division. Trackways oriented approximately north-west to south-east and north-east to south-west, together with ditches aligned parallel or perpendicular to these, seem to relate to the surrounding settlement pattern, leading to Stow Hill to the north-west and Paston Street to the south-west. They lie at an angle to, and presumably pre-date, a second group of cropmarks. These are characterised by a more north-to-south and east-to-west orientation and fit the field pattern depicted on historic maps (e.g. S7, parts of which are also visible as cropmarks but have not been mapped). Some are even depicted on the Tithe Map for the parish (S8), e.g. the ditch visible between TG 3203 3511 and TG 3203 3499. The relationship between the earlier trackways and surrounding settlements suggests that they may date back to the medieval period or even earlier, while the correspondence of some of the ditches with field boundaries depicted on the Tithe Map indicates that they were extant in the late post-medieval period.

Although two phases can be discerned only their most characteristic elements, such as the trackways, are distinctive. Many of the ditches could be associated with either phase, or with both. For example, the ditch visible between TG 3245 3545 and TG 3247 3535 shares the same orientation as the 19th-century field pattern, but it cuts across a trackway depicted on historic maps and its northern end appears to respect one of the earlier trackways. The sinuous outline of some of the 'later' features, such as the field boundary shown on historic maps (S7) between TG 3256 3527 and TG 3256 3508, suggests that they too might reflect land division in the medieval period. The 'two' phases have consequently been recorded as one site. At the same time, Iron Age pottery has been recovered from a site nearby (NHER 6879) and many of the cropmark sites to the west (e.g. 15911) have been dated tentatively to the Iron Age or Romano-British period, so an earlier date for some of the features cannot be ruled out entirely. Undated ditches to the south, e.g. NHER 39125, might be associated with the earlier phase described here.

The field system is visible across an area measuring approximately 1.380km by 0.855km. The earlier trackways are visible from TG 3162 3569 to TG 3188 3541 and from TG 3245 3546 to TG 3189 3500. A (for the most part double) ditch visible from TG 3240 3524 to TG 3216 3515 and a wide, (for the most part single) ditch visible from TG 3281 3508 to TG 3211 3490, may also be trackways or relatively large-scale boundaries forming part of the same system.
(S1-8)
S. Tremlett (NMP), 22 December 2004.