NHER 42095 (Monument record) - Possible World War Two bomb crater

October 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A pit is visible as a cropmark and soilmark on aerial photographs (S1), (S2) and (S3), centred at TG 4595 2326. A second possible pit, which is very similar in appearance, is visible on the 1944 aerial photographs (S1) 52m to its south (at TG 4597 2319). The cropmarks may also correspond with marks visible on aerial photographs taken in 1943 (S4). They are both reminiscent of bomb craters but the southernmost pit was overlain by a hedge in 1944 suggesting that unlike most craters visible on 1940s aerial photographs it could not have been created during World War Two. Alternatively, they might have been created by a World War One bombing raid, or they could be extraction or agricultural pits or ponds of some kind. If the latter interpretation is correct, they probably date to no later than the first decades of the 19th century as the hedge which crosses the southernmost pit marks a boundary shown on Horsey Enclosure Map of 1816 (S4). Another possibility is that the southern cropmark is the product of recent agricultural activity rather than the presence of a pit, or that its apparent similarity to the northern pit is coincidence rather than a reflection of their similar date. If is the case, the northern pit could date to World War Two.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 19 October 2005.