NHER 42050 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of probable Late Neolithic or Bronze Age round barrow

December 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A double concentric ring ditch is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 4893 1499. It is most likely to represent the remains of a prehistoric burial mound, one of several to be identified in the area. Its relatively large size and its complexity (compared to NHER 12179, for example) indicates that it could be of Late Neolithic or Bronze Age date. It is passed on its north side by a linear ditch which has been interpreted as part of a complex of medieval to post medieval field boundaries and trackways (NHER 27263). The fact that the ditch appears to respect the barrow site suggests that the latter still survived as an earthwork when the field boundaries were laid out.

Both the inner and outer ditch are roughly circular in shape. The diameter of the outer ditch is approximately 36.75m; the diameter of the inner ditch is approximately 21m. Breaks in the circuit of both ditches are as likely to be caused by the cropmarks being obscured as by the presence of genuine causeways. It should be noted that the outer ditch is rather ephemeral and could be a product of the underlying geology at the site rather than the presence of an archaeological feature.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 20 December 2005.