NHER 27462 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of medieval to post medieval post mill, Top Farm

March 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A ring ditch surrounding a central cross-shaped pit is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 4675 1933. The site is typical of levelled post mill mounds, usually dated to the medieval or early post medieval period. Given the proximity of several probable Bronze Age round barrows (NHER 21772 40m to the southwest), it is possible that the post mill was sited on a pre-existing prehistoric mound, an outlying part of the dispersed barrow cemetery identified 560m to the southwest (NHER 29628). It could instead have been purpose built for the windmill and positioned close to the earlier barrows by coincidence. It is both respected by and overlapped by linear cropmarks which form part of a multi-period field system (NHER 21270). Given the difficulty of dating both the field system and the ring ditch, the chronological relationship between the two sites is not known.

The ring ditch is circular in plan and measures approximately 18m in diameter. A narrow break in the ditch circuit on its southeast side may or may not mark a genuine entrance.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 15 March 2006.