NHER 42124 (Monument record) - Possible post medieval water meadows

September 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A possible area of water meadows, or an elaborate drainage scheme, is visible on aerial photographs to the east of the Hempstead Marshes, Sea Palling (S1-S2). The site is centred on TG 4188 2714. The site consists of parallel closely spaced bank and ditch earthworks. The site is located on the edge of the former Sea Common, marked on Faden’s map of 1797 (S3), part of the alluvial Thurne valley grazing levels. On the 1839 Palling Tithe map this area of common marsh has been divided by a series of rectilinear drains (S4). This area of possible water meadows is aligned alongside these rectilinear drains, indicating a potentially nineteenth century date for these features.

These earthworks no longer remain, and in 1972 the arable field shows signs of significant waterlogging and alluvial deposits and has the appearance of being the end of a shallow gully coming from the slightly lower and wetter ground to the west (S5). On Faden’s map of 1797 a meandering channel is depicted running through the Sea Common (S3), it is possible that this gully is the course of a creek that fed into the main channel. This would correspond with the narrow tongue of common land projecting towards the village defined on the Faden map. Possible areas of extraction have been recorded within this former estuarine valley (NHER 42127) and it is possible that this extraction continued into the area of this site, although it is hard to be sure given the presence of the later earthworks and their subsequent levelling. The 1972 aerial photographs indicate that the central strip of the site, where the banks and ditches were, dipped down from the drains at the sides (S2). It is possible that the southern drain bounding the earthworks acted as a top carrier channel, allowing water to be floating over the lower part of the site, and was then drained away by the parallel system of drains. This area of earthworks is surrounded by arable fields and it is possible that the system was larger and that important elements of its layout, such as carrier drains, have been ploughed away. There are also no main drains visible running along the top of the ridges, which would allow the banks and ditches to operate like a classic water meadow system. It is possible given the location that these earthworks are an elaborate drainage scheme, although the ditches would be excessively closely set for normal drainage works.

The area of earthworks remaining in 1943 to 6 measured approximately 160m by 85m (S1 and S2). The ditches are all approximately 5 to 9m apart and the banks, where visible, are 2 to 5m wide and quite irregular in plan. These are presumably created from the material dug out of the drains.
S. Massey (NMP), 30 September 2005.