NHER 43789 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of a ring ditch

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 4082 2019. It is possible that this ring ditch is the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow or a late prehistoric house circle, although this is not certain. The ring ditch is located within a rectilinear enclosure or field system of unknown, but possibly Iron Age to Roman date (NHER 43792), which may suggest that the house circle interpretation is more likely. Two other ring ditches are visible on the aerial photographs 430m to the west (NHER 43788). These cropmarks are located within a larger multiphase cropmark site (NHER 43791).

The positioning of this site and the other ring ditches to the west, 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. Other more convincing round barrows sites have been mapped to the north at Hickling (NHER 29749 and 36106). 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 ring ditch, which is penannular and 18m in diameter, is located within an area of rectilinear enclosures and field boundaries of unknown, but possibly Iron Age to Roman date (NHER 43792). It is therefore possible that it represents the remains of a hut circle, although their size is quite large for a house. The other two ring ditches recorded to the west (NHER 43788) is also approximately 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).
S. Massey (NMP), 12 June 2006.