NHER 44898 (Monument record) - Site of part of a possibly later prehistoric trackway northwest of Lodge Farm

August 2006. Norfolk NMP.
A trackway is visible as a cropmark and soilmark on aerial photographs (S1)-(S2), between TG 4386 1578 and TG 4360 1548. It may have been in use during the post medieval period; a northeast-to-southwest aligned road or track, seemingly a precursor to Lawn’s Lane, is depicted here on Faden’s 1797 Map of Norfolk (S3). Assuming that Faden’s mapping is correct, it had been removed before the publication of the 1838 Ordnance Survey 1 inch map (S4)-(S5). The alignment of the marks, however, with trackways of possibly later prehistoric date to northeast (NHER 44897 and 32062) suggests that it could have much earlier origins. All these lengths of trackway, which perhaps once joined to each other, pass close to one or more ring ditches; in the case of the track described here, a ring ditch (NHER 18394) is located 5m to the west of its southwest end. The trackways appear to both be sited on and to respect the ring ditches, all of which probably represent Bronze Age funerary monuments.

A number of other undated cropmarks have been mapped in the area surrounding the trackway and are recorded as NHER 44901. Some of these may be contemporary with one or more of the trackway’s phases of use. In addition, a rectilinear pattern of ditches visible 150m to the southwest (NHER 44902) has the same orientation as the trackway and may represent a contemporary field system.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 2 August 2006.