NHER 43692 (Monument record) - Site of possible post medieval sheep fold north of Paddys Loke

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A possible small rectilinear enclosure is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S3), centred at TG 5163 0908. It was formed by a three-sided rectilinear ditch which abutted a longer drain to its south depicted on historic Ordnance Survey maps, e.g. (S4). (The latter has not been mapped by the NMP, while the north and east sides of the rectilinear ditch are also shown on the Ordnance Survey map.) The resulting enclosure may have been associated with the past use of the area as grazing marsh; it could have been used as a sheep fold, for example. Alternatively, it may simply have fulfilled a role in the drainage of this area of marsh. The site has been mapped as visible in July 1944 (S1), when a causeway existed on its east side between the terminal of the ditch and the drain. The ditch was presumably contemporary with or later than the drain, which itself formed part of a linear drainage pattern of probable post medieval date. A similar date for the postulated enclosure seems likely. More recent aerial photographs of the site taken in 1989 (S5) demonstrate that both the drain and the ditch have been levelled by ploughing.

The enclosure measured approximately 19m long and 13m wide.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 24 May 2006.