NHER 44895 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of probable Bronze Age round barrow south of Repps Road

July 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A ring ditch is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 4450 1731. It almost certainly represents the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow or similar funerary monument, one of two identified in this area. (The other, NHER 44896, lies 270m to the south.) Burnt and struck flints have been recovered nearby (NHER 34010-34012, for example, 380m to the south), and its location close to the summit of a low hill is typical for a funerary site of this date. A trackway, probably dating to the later prehistoric period (part of NHER 32062), passes 175m to its east, and a probable Bronze Age enclosed settlement and field system (NHER 27331) lies down slope to the east. This relationship between secular and funerary sites is not unusual for the Middle to Late Bronze Age; it is apparent, for example, at South Lodge on Cranborne Chase (S2). At the same time, the interpretation of otherwise undated ring ditches must always be treated with a degree of caution, as a variety of different dates and functions are possible.

The ring ditch is roughly circular in plan and is defined by a relatively substantial ditch. It measures approximately 18.5m in diameter externally, and 15m in diameter internally. A break on its northeast side is probably the product of masking by modern agricultural marks, but the gap on its west side could mark a genuine entrance.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 27 July 2006.