NHER 43699 (Monument record) - Drainage ditch, possibly post medieval, north of Martham Broad

May 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A probable drainage ditch is visible as cropmarks and vegetation marks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S3), between TG 4575 2156 and TG 4560 2122. It connected to a network of natural drainage channels which fed into the Hundred Stream to their southeast. (The natural channels have not been mapped by the NMP but are visible on (S3)). The drain may itself have originated as a natural channel, but its relatively regular, curvilinear course suggests that it has at least been modified, if not created, by human action. It could have been associated with the drainage mill marked (as ‘Old Drain M.’) at this approximate location on Faden’s 1797 Map of Norfolk (S4). The mill itself presumably dated to the post medieval period, and if the postulated association with the drain is correct, the latter may have been a contemporary feature. Alternatively (or in addition) the drain appears to connect to an area of probable peat extraction immediately to its south (NHER 43700). Its exact relationship with this activity, which presumably took place during the medieval period, is unclear.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 31 May 2006.