NHER 43788 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of a pair of ring ditches

June 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The faint cropmarks of a pair of ring ditches are visible on aerial photographs to the south of Reynolds Lane, Potter Heigham (S1). The site is centred on TG 4034 2020. It is possible that these ring ditches are the remains of Bronze Age round barrows or late prehistoric house circles, although this is not certain. A third ring ditch is visible on the aerial photographs 430m to the east (NHER 43789). The positioning of these sites would be unusual for Bronze Age barrows, as all are located below the 5m contour and are on the land which gently slopes down to the lower valley floor and the peat fen. However, other more convincing round barrows sites have been mapped to the north at Hickling (NHER 29749 and NHER 36106) and these are also located immediately just below the 5m contour, although in this case the barrows are in a more elevated and prominent position.

The western ring ditch is located at TG 4029 2019 and the eastern at TG 4037 2020. The western ring ditch is the clearer cropmark of the two and is a slightly sub-circular ring, 16 to 18m across. The eastern example is much more dubious, showing as a penannular ring, 18m in diameter, with a break in the ring to the southeast, although this coincides with agricultural ‘envelope’ pattern mark, which may be interrupting the cropmark.

These cropmarks are located within a larger multiphase cropmark site (NHER 43791). The majority of these cropmarks have been interpreted as the remains of late prehistoric to Roman field boundaries and enclosures. It is therefore possible that ring ditches are the remains of prehistoric hut circles, although their size is quite large for a house. The other ring ditch recorded to the east (NHER 43789) is also 18m in diameter. This similarity of size within a group of nearby ring ditches would be more suggestive of hut circles than round barrows (S2; p115). However the irregular shape of the westernmost ring ditch would be unusual for an eavesdrip gully. Neither of the ring ditches shows an obvious relationship with the surrounding cropmarks, such as being located within an enclosure as may be expected.
S. Massey (NMP), 12 June 2006.