NHER 45272 (Monument record) - Cropmarks of rectilinear enclosures, field boundaries and a trackway of possible Roman date

November 2006. Norfolk NMP
Cropmarks of rectilinear enclosures and field boundaries of unknown, but possibly Roman, date are visible on aerial photographs (S1). These cropmarks are centred on TG 3346 1849. A group of five adjoining rectilinear enclosures form what appears to be an incomplete rectangular block. Only one of the enclosures is complete and measures 31m by 39m internally. The other enclosures range from 10m to 36m in width by up to 61m long. A linear ditch is present on a roughly west to east alignment 6m to the south of and parallel to the enclosures. It is possible that it defines a trackway. It also forms the northern boundary of two or three fields or enclosures. The most complete of these measures at least 93m long by 50m wide. The northern part of its eastern boundary is defined by a series of eight irregular pit cropmarks, each measuring approximately 2m in diameter. It is likely that these are holes relating to trees that marked the line of the field boundary. Another west to east boundary cropmark is present to the east of these fields. Further field boundary cropmarks on a similar alignment are present 200m to the west (NHER 45273). The alignment of these enclosures and field boundaries does not correspond to the modern field pattern or that shown on the Hoveton St Peter enclosure map (S2). The area is shown as being Hoveton Common on Faden’s 1797 Map of Norfolk (S3). The group of enclosures and field boundaries could possibly relate to a farmstead and might be of Roman date.
J. Albone (NMP), 27 November 2006