NHER 43398 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of possible Bronze Age round barrow cemetery at Mill Farm

March 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The site described below may be the same as that recorded as NHER 12189.

Four ring ditches are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S2), centred at TG 4916 1870. Their topographically distinctive location, on a neck of land overlooking lower ground to their north and south, and the clustering of four ring ditches together, suggests that they probably mark the site of a levelled Bronze Age round barrow cemetery. At the same time, two of the ring ditches have cross-shaped marks at their centre, suggesting that they once supported medieval or post medieval post mills, forerunners of the documented mill that once stood at Mill Farm, 145m northeast (NHER 13346). Although it is possible that some or all of the ring ditches surrounded purpose built mill mounds, they could equally have surrounded round barrows that were later found to be a convenient location for post mills. The fact that their morphology contrasts with that of a ring ditch which probably did once surrounded a purpose built mill mound located 475m to the northwest (NHER 12188), supports the latter interpretation. In addition, some elements of the surrounding field systems (NHER 13073 and 43400) appear to respect the ring ditches (e.g. at TG 4915 1876), which could indicate that they were earlier features, still visible when the field systems were laid out.

The NMP mapping of the ring ditches is somewhat schematic, as the photographs used (S2) were extremely oblique and lacked the control points necessary for accurate rectification. The following description of the morphology of the site, therefore, must be treated as approximate. The barrow cemetery is visible across an area measuring approximately 123m by 84m. It has no discernible pattern. The ring ditches are generally circular in shape: the northernmost (at TG 4915 1874) is slightly oval in plan; the irregularly shaped ring ditch at TG 4918 1868 may have been recut or may overlie a second ring ditch. The northernmost ring ditch (TG 4915 1874) measures 22m in diameter; the irregularly shaped ring ditch (TG 4918 1868) 24.5m by 19m; the ring ditch to its east (TG 4920 1868) 21.5m in diameter; and the southernmost ring ditch (TG 4914 1864) 16m in diameter. A cross-shaped pit-like mark is visible within the eastern ring ditch, and perhaps also within the irregularly shaped ring ditch to its east but this is more doubtful. An internal feature may also be visible within the northern ring ditch but this was not clear enough to warrant mapping.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 16 March 2006.