NHER 43465 (Monument record) - Undated drainage ditches and mound on Gapton Marshes

April 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A mound and a group of linear and curvilinear ditches and banks are visible as earthworks and vegetation marks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S4). The mound is visible at TG 5022 0616. The ditches and banks, which extend up to 300m to its west, are probably drainage features: the ditches representing former drains, the banks marking the line of flood banks or levees, although some may have been used as trackways. They fit the same general pattern as the surrounding drains which are depicted on historic and modern maps, e.g. (S5). This pattern is probably the product of cumulative medieval and post medieval drainage works, including the adaptation of natural channels (see Williamson (S6)). It is possible that the mound is also contemporary with this activity. It was once almost entirely surrounded by drains (see the Ordnance Survey 1st edition 6 inch map (S7)), and the interior of this ‘enclosure’ was perhaps used for some kind of specialised function, or simply for depositing spoil from the surrounding drains. Alternatively, it may have been a pre-existing feature, perhaps a medieval (or earlier) saltern. A similar mound is visible 210m to the southwest (NHER 43464).

The mound has an irregular curvilinear shape in plan and measures approximately 52m long and 16.5m wide. It still survived as a slight earthwork in 1989 (S4), by which time the other mapped features appear to have been levelled.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 3 April 2006.