NHER 44818 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Earthworks of a medieval to post medieval field system in Hedenham Park

June 2006. Norfolk NMP
Earthworks and cropmarks of a road and field boundaries of medieval to post medieval date are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S3). These earthworks lie in Hedenham Park and Ditchingham Park and are centred on TM 3150 9293. A curving linear parchmark and earthwork of a former road is intermittently visible between TM 3134 9318 and TM 3169 9286. The northwest end of the course of this road is still marked by a property boundary at Valley Farm (NHER 12079). The earthwork at this end of its route corresponds to the line of a road marked on a late 17th century estate map (illustrated in S4). Further to the south both this map and the1812 Hedenham enclosure map (S5) show the road on a more west to east and then north to south route than that represented by the earthworks. The route shown on the maps runs around the perimeter of Hedenham Park and it is likely that the road was diverted when the park was laid out in the 16th or 17th centuries. The earthworks of the road appear to represent its course prior to the establishment of the park and are likely to be of medieval date. The road was marked as being ‘stopped up’ or closed on the 1812 enclosure map (S5) and does not appear on later maps.

To the south of the former road is a rectilinear pattern of earthwork field boundary banks. These are arranged on a roughly north to south and west to east plan perpendicular to the line of Stone Street Roman road to their south (NHER 10636). Closest to the road are four narrow fields measuring up to 172m long by between 17m and 38m wide. Further to the north are larger but incomplete rectangular fields. Lines of trees marked on the late 17th century estate map (S4) appear to correspond to the boundaries of the narrow north to south aligned fields centred on TM 3157 9268. The boundaries themselves are not marked on this map or the later enclosure map (S5). It is probable that, like the former road, they are also earlier than the establishment of the park and are of medieval to early post medieval date.
J. Albone (NMP), 27 June 2006


November 2025. HER Enhancement: Forestry Commission Project K.
Earthwork banks and ditches associated with medieval to post medieval field boundaries and a road, mapped by the previous NMP survey (see above), are visible as earthworks on visualised lidar data from a survey flown in 2022. As the lidar survey was flown relatively recently, it is likely that the features still survive as earthworks.
J. Powell (Norfolk County Council Environment Service), 20 November 2025