NHER 27383 (Monument record) - Medieval to post medieval enclosures

June 2005. Norfolk NMP.
Earthworks of two enclosures of probable medieval to post medieval date are visible on aerial photographs (S1). These earthworks are centred on TG 5118 1001 and lie at about 1m OD. A roughly square enclosure measuring 12.5m by at least 10m is located adjacent to an extant drainage ditch. A narrow earthwork ditch defines its northern, eastern and southern sides. The western side may have been formed by the extant drainage ditch, but the extant relationship between the two is obscured by the bank of the modern ditch.

The second enclosure is roughly rectangular in plan with rounded ends. It measures 11m long by just over 4m wide and is defined by a narrow ditch. It lies on a roughly northwest to southeast alignment 11m to the southeast of the square enclosure. The internal area of both enclosures does not appear to consist of raised platforms, but seem to lie at the same height as the surrounding land. Information from [1] suggests that these enclosures are probably sheep cotes. They were used to pen sheep overnight so that their manure could be collected. The manure was then transported from the marshes for use as fertiliser on arable fields on the ‘upland’ (S3). They do not appear on the 1838 tithe map (S2) or later maps and are probably of medieval to post medieval date. An enclosure similar to the larger of these two was also visible as earthworks 320m to the east (NHER 27386). The earthworks of both enclosures had been levelled by 1963 (S4).
J. Albone (NMP), 13 June 2005.