NHER 43457 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmark and soilmarks of predominantly post medieval date field boundaries and trackways, Bradwell

March 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmark and soilmarks of predominantly post medieval date field boundaries, banks and trackways are visible on aerial photographs within arable land in Bradwell (S1-S4). The site is centred on TG 5085 0314. The boundaries are aligned along those of the modern landscape, suggesting that they are broadly post medieval in date, although some of elements may have medieval origins. One of the trackways, running from TG 5066 0314 to TG 5066 0299, links up with a field boundary marked on the 1842 Bradwell Tithe map (S5), now removed. Another trackway is visible to the west, running from TG 50420 0319 to TG 5042 0303. Both of these trackways follow a slightly sinuous course and it is possible that they are following earlier medieval field divisions.

Centred on TG 5102 0307 is a group of quite faint soilmarks which appear to mark the location of former boundaries. Running from TG 5108 0318 and TG 5113 0304 is the soilmark of a field boundary, which is parallel to a field boundary, now removed, but surviving into the 1950s. In-between these two is another parallel linear bank, TG 5099 0318 to TG 51029 0301, visible as a slight earthwork in 1953 (S3). Also visible in 1989 are a series of slightly less convincing soilmarks (S4), although it possible that some of them may be caused by more recent agricultural activities, in particular the linears running perpendicular to the majority of the mapped features.

To the north of this is another group of ditched features, the majority of which appear to be field boundaries. The linear features to the east of Jew’s Lane, centred on TG 5112 0335, are largely all double ditched and may represent trackways alongside fields. These all appear to follow alignment of the post medieval field boundaries, however the relationship with Jew’s Lane is peculiar. The road appears to cut obliquely through the grid formed by the post medieval fields, although the road is likely to be quite ancient and is following that course on Faden’s map of 1797(S6). It is possible that this area of field boundaries, despite being on the same alignment, are not post medieval in date, and in fact pre-date the Jew’s Lane. However on the present evidence it must be assumed that the field boundaries and trackways are also post medieval in date. A large amount of metal detecting has taken place in the vicinity and all the finds are predominantly medieval to post medieval in date.
S. Massey (NMP), 29 March 2006.

January 2013. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of fields to north and south of Clay Lane and Gorleston Lane.
This survey identified a number of north-to-south and east-to-west aligned linear positive anomalies in the westernmost part of the field to the north of Gorleston Lane. Several of these anomalies appear to correspond with cropmarks in this group, include the probable trackway running between TG 5066 0314 and TG 5066 0299 and one of the perpendicular features. There was however no evidence for sub-surface remains associated with the faint soilmarks recorded in the easternmost part of this field (area centred TG 5102 0307).
It should also be noted that a cluster of similarly aligned anomalies was identified at the northern edge of the field to the south of Clay Lane (TG 5028 0303). Although fragmentary these appear to represent the remains of several linked enclosures.
See report (S7) and NHER 62729 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 2 January 2019.

March 2018. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site to south of Meadowland Drive.
Although several of the trenches excavated coincided with east-north-east to west-south-west aligned cropmarks in this group only one was found to be associated with a surviving sub-surface feature. This ditch produced three sherds of post-medieval pottery. A number of other similarly- and perpendicularly-aligned ditches were potentially of a similar date to these cropmarks, although apart from a single post-medieval tile fragment no finds were recovered. It is also noted that in several cases the cuts of these ditches were not visible in the subsoil layer, suggesting that they could well be of medieval or earlier date.
See report (S8) and NHER 62740 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 10 May 2018.

January 2019. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development area to north of Clay Lane (Wheatcroft Farm, Phase 3).
This work identified two ditches that clearly corresponded with the pair of parallel, north-to-south aligned cropmarks at TG 5065 0312, along with another ditch likely to be associated with one of the perpendicular cropmarks to the east. None produced any dating evidence.
See report (S9) and NHER 62729 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 2 September 2019.

March 2020. Trial Trenching.
This phase of work saw the examination of an area immediately north of Woodfarm Lane, where a number of north-north-west to south-south-east and east-north-east to west-north-west aligned soil marks have been recorded. No associated remains were identified. A number of similarly-aligned ditches were though recorded at this location, one of which produced a fragment of medieval/post-medieval tile.
See report (S10) and NHER 62729 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 9 February 2023.

December 2020-April 2021. Excavation.
This excavation of an area north of Woodfarm Lane targeted Early Saxon remains identified by the 2020 trial trenching.
There was again no evidence for surviving remains associated with the soilmarks recorded at this location. A number of parallel, similarly-aligned ditches were though shown to be of definite post-medieval date.
This work also revealed a number of badly truncated east-to-west and north-to-south aligned ditches of uncertain date, a number of which appear to have been associated with a junction between two perpendicular trackways. These ditches produced few finds but were regarded as potentially prehistoric. Their form and alignments are notable similar to those of cropmarks recorded to the west, at TG 5065 0309 – suggesting the features in this group are not necessarily all post-medieval.
See report (S11) and NHER 62729 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 9 February 2023.

March 2023. Assessment of the Character and Significance of East Anglian Field Systems project.
The site described above was included in the dataset analysed for the Historic England-funded Assessment of East Anglian Field Systems project. See the project report (S12) for further details.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk County Council Environment Team), 22 March 2023.