NHER 43474 (Monument record) - Probably post medieval drains on Gapton Marshes

April 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A group of drains is visible as earthworks and vegetation marks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S8), centred at TG 5102 0614. Some elements of the site, such as the curvilinear ditch visible between TG 5079 0604 and TG 5088 0604, are depicted on Bradwell Tithe Map (S9), indicating that they were in use in the 19th century. Some, such as the substantial ditch (comprising a main drain flanked by flood banks and ‘soke dykes’, see (S10)) visible between TG 5093 0622 and TG 5117 0613, may have been constructed to serve the two 19th century drainage windmills located towards the east end of the site (NHER 34995 and 34996; see (S11)). Although most of the features just described appear to have been constructed, or at least in use, in the late post medieval period, the sinuous outline of some of the ditches is characteristic of earlier drainage schemes, perhaps dating back to the medieval period. These utilised and modified pre-existing natural channels, as described in (S12), a process that is evident at nearby sites, including NHER 43468 100m to the northwest. The narrow rectilinear drains visible at the centre of the site (between TG 5097 0627 and TG 5105 0609) may be ‘foot drains’ (see (S10)), dug for local drainage. Elsewhere these have not been mapped by the NMP (for example, see NHER 30624) but they have been included here as they appear to join to a wider pattern of drainage (NHER 43475 in the adjacent fields to the north).

The drains are not clearly visible on recent aerial photographs of the site taken in 1989 (S13) but some may still survive as low earthworks.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 4 April 2006.

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 (S14) for further details.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk County Council Environment Team), 22 March 2023.