NHER 43739 (Monument record) - Cropmark enclosure and field boundaries of possible Iron Age to Roman date

March 2005. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of a group of enclosures and field boundaries of possible Iron Age to Roman date are visible on aerial photographs in-between Stubb Farm and Stubb Mill, Hickling (S1). The site is centred on TG 4327 2223. Other similarly aligned groups of cropmark field boundaries and ditches are located to the west (NHER 43735-6) and may be of a similar date and possibly part of the same site. These cropmarks are located within a wider spread of undated multi-phase cropmarks (NHER 43741).

These cropmarks obviously pre-date the post medieval field layout and the road running west-east along the Stubb, which is likely to be of some antiquity and is marked on the 1797 Faden map (S2). The morphology of the cropmarks would suggest a possible Iron Age to Roman date. The Stubb is a narrow strip of slightly raised ground with loamy soils, which is surrounding by the lower valley peats and alluvial clays. This strip of land would probably have offered an obvious location for settlement and agriculture in the past.

The main cluster of cropmarks is located at TG 4324 2233, with two other clusters at TG 4307 2217 and TG 4348 2217. The site appears to consist of fragmentary and conjoined rectilinear enclosures and field boundaries. A possible trackway component may be suggested by the cropmarks at TG 4327 2235, where two parallel ditches feed into one of the possible enclosures. It is possible that this trackway led down to the fen area, which would have been used for a variety of activities. This site is also extremely close to alluvial clays associated with the upper Thurne valley. However this location, close to the edge of the wetter ground, could indicate that some of these features on the margin of the Stubb are related to drainage.
S. Massey (NMP), 29 March 2005.