NHER 43482 (Monument record) - Undated, probably post medieval drains south of the River Bure

April 2006. Norfolk NMP.
Former drainage ditches are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S3), centred at TG 5167 1006. One comprises a bank along much of its length; this may have been a flood bank or ‘wall’ constructed of material excavated from the drain, and/or it could have acted as a trackway. The features may represent an attempt to drain an elongated area of wetter, lower-lying ground which is visible as an earthwork and vegetation mark across much of the site. This appears to be natural in origin (and consequently is not included on the NMP map layer) and could represent part of an earlier course of the River Bure, which now lies approximately 65m to the north.

The features are undated but they join to drains depicted on historic Ordnance Survey maps, including the 2nd edition 25 inch (S4), and probably originated at the same time as these mapped drains. The latter consist of a combination of sinuous and linear drains, and are almost certainly the product of cumulative medieval and post medieval drainage works, including the adaptation of natural channels (see (S5)). The relatively regular outline of the disused drains mapped by the NMP may indicate that a post medieval date for their construction is most likely. At the same time if, as seems probable, one of the drains is butted by a former sheep fold (NHER 27386), and if the sheep fold is medieval, the drain must be similarly early in date. Aerial photographs of the site taken in 1989, see (S6), indicate that it has been substantially levelled, but some low earthworks could still survive.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 5 April 2006.

April 2008-June 2010. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of excavation of new soke dyke as part of the Broadland Flood Alleviation Project (Compartment 11).
Although the excavated dyke coincided with the easternmost of the earthworks in this group no corresponding remains were identified.
See report (S7) and NHER 69639 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 2 December 2025.