NHER 43530 (Monument record) - The cropmarks of a probable prehistoric trackway

April 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of a probable prehistoric trackway are visible on aerial photographs in-between the Lowestoft Road (A12) and the Holiday Village, Hopton-on-Sea (S1-S4). The site is centred on TG 5270 0038. The trackway follows a sinuous course and is likely to have originally formed part of a much wider system of trackways, joining with NHER 43501 to the northwest. This southern section of trackway appears to have been incorporated into a system of fields, which are likely to be Iron Age in date (NHER 43496). These cropmarks were originally recorded under NHER 11788 and 13040.

The trackway runs from TG 5256 0052 to TG 5289 0030 and varies from to 6.5m to 11m. The trackway is defined by two roughly parallel ditches, 1-3m in width. Towards the southern end of the trackway there is an additional ditch which is parallel to the main ditches and may represent a recutting of the trackway at some point. However the ditch does turn across the centre of the trackway, possibly indicating that it later modification to the site towards the end of its use. This trackway appears to form the southwestern boundary for a series of field boundaries that possibly form part of an Iron Age field system (NHER 43496). This field system is likely to be part of the much wider series of Iron Age fields associated with the farmstead or settlement to the north (NHER 43494).

It is possible that this trackway originally joined with another sinuous trackway 480m to the northwest (NHER 43501). This trackway has been incorporated into a planned Roman field system, see NHER 43495 for details. The whole of the trackway appears to form the western boundary for the planned fields and enclosures. The area in-between these two sections of trackway is covered by the Roman fields and this may have obliterated any substantial traces of the ditches. However there are two sections of curvilinear ditch running from TG 5251 0059 to TG 5244 0069, which do not appear to fit into the Roman system particularly well and these are roughly aligned in-between the two sections of sinuous trackways. It is possible that these represent the former linked section of the track, see NHER 43495 for details. This trackway to the northwest (NHER 43501) is part of a much wider network of routeways (NHER 43529). It has been suggested that this trackway system, and another 1.6km to the west (NHER 43544) form a series of prehistoric trackways, that are at least Iron Age in date, which are potentially sited upon earlier Bronze Age barrows. The two main trackways (43529 and 43544) run almost parallel to one another, running NW-SE across this area. They would appear to be dividing the landscape of the former island of Lothingland using existing monuments as their reference points. See NHER 43529, 43501 and 43544 for discussion.
S. Massey (NMP), 11 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 (S5) for further details.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk County Council Environment Team), 22 March 2023.