NHER 43528 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - The cropmarks of two ring ditches, probably Iron Age to Roman date round houses within a farmstead (NHER 43525), Hopton-on-Sea

April 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of two ring ditches, probably round houses within a farmstead of Iron Age to Early Roman date (NHER 43525), are visible on aerial photographs in Hopton-on-Sea (S1-S2). See record NHER 43525 for discussion of the farmstead and associated features. The site is centred on TG 5229 0027. Although it is also possible that these ring ditches are the remains of Bronze Age round barrows as the site is located within the area of a Bronze Age cemetery (NHER 43526), focused on a large barrow to the immediate east of the farmstead and possible round houses. Although it cannot be known for certain, the roundhouse interpretation seems most likely given the positioning of the ring ditches within the enclosure.

The ring ditches are both 13m in diameter. The eastern ring ditch is more oval in plan than the western and has two breaks in the ditch. The rings are roughly equidistantly arranged within located enclosure (NHER 43525), both being 3.5-4m from the ditches. Although it is entirely possible for this positioning within the enclosure to be fortuitous, it does seem likely that the ring ditches and enclosure are contemporary. Also the similarity in the size of ring ditches would suggest that they are both round houses, rather than barrows.

The barrow cemetery (NHER 43526) comprises one extremely large barrow, 80m in diameter, plus sixteen smaller barrows, the majority of which are between 12m to 19m in diameter. Therefore the size of the two ring ditches within the enclosure is entirely consistent with that displayed by barrow ditches nearby. However none of the other ring ditches are as closely spaced as the two within the enclosure, which are 6m apart. The closest of the other barrow sites are 10m apart and in this case the ring ditches are noticeable different in shape and size. Although it must also be borne in mind that some of these ring ditches interpreted as round barrows could also be the remains of round houses as there are several phases of field system and enclosures covering this area, in particular NHER 43559.

The western ring ditch is now under the route of the A12 and it is possible that the road construction has disturbed the eastern site.
S. Massey (NMP), 18 April 2006.

January-February 2013. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site between Lowestoft Road and A12.
One of the trenches was positioned in order to investigate the eastern ring ditch and the surrounding enclosure (NHER 43525). Although both were found to have corresponding sub-surface remains, unfortunately no dating evidence was recovered. It was also not possible to conclusively demonstrate that the ring-ditch was structural, although this would appear to remain the most likely interpretation. Whilst it was not possible to directly date the main enclosure a number of the associated cropmark features were found to correspond with ditches of probable Roman date. The Roman pottery assemblage as a whole suggests that activity on the site may have been largely restricted to the earlier part of the 2nd century, with little in the way of earlier or later material present.
See report (S3) and NHER 62519 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 1 February 2018.