NHER 49205 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of enclosures and field boundaries of unknown date to the east of Burgh Castle Fort

Some of these cropmarks have previously been recorded under NHER 10486, 11605, 13227 and 17261.

November 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of enclosures and field boundaries of unknown date are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S11) to the east of Burgh Castle Fort (NHER 10471). The site is centred on TG 4778 0463. These features either pre-date or post-date the Roman vicus associated with the fort, which is recorded under NHER 49204. An Iron Age or Saxon date is possible. An overall parent record has been created for all undated and unphased cropmarks (NHER 49203). Some of these cropmarks have previously been recorded under NHER 10486, 11605, 13227 and 17261.

Some Iron Age material has been recovered from the site (NHER 10471, 13227 and 17261). Burgh Castle is traditionally held as the location of the Middle Saxon monastery founded by St Fursey in the early 7th century (NHER 10471) and Saxon date material and buildings have been recovered during excavations within the fort. Finds of early to late Saxon date have also been found to the east of the fort (NHER 17261). Only a limited amount of excavation has taken place outside of the fort walls. The earliest excavated features revealed to the south of the Church were undated, it is possible that they are pre-Roman, although they may be early Romano-British in date (S13) (NHER 13227). These followed a broadly E-W alignment, making them potentially hard to differentiate from any later Roman features on the aerial photographs. A late Saxon date ditch was also revealed, running NW-SE, which cut across a series of Roman date enclosures and field boundaries (S13). The line of this ditch is broadly the same of the cropmarks recorded under this site and may indicate a late Saxon date for these cropmarks. Although a later Saxon phase appears to follow the N-S alignment of the earlier Roman ditches, again suggesting that it may be quite hard to distinguish the Roman and Saxon phases of activity.

The main concentrations of cropmarks are located at TG 4793 0456 and TG 4775 0443. All the ditches recorded under this number follow a broadly NE-SW or NW-SE direction, which clearly distinguishes them from those associated with the Roman vicus, with are E-W or N-S. The cropmarks in the area of overlap of the two sites are quite faint and not all features appear on all aerial photographs, making establishing a relative chronology extremely hard. Although the general impression would be that these cropmarks pre-date the Roman vicus, but this is far from not certain.

The cropmarks appear to consist of rectilinear enclosures and ditches, the majority of which were presumed to be field boundaries. At TG 4790 0457 is an area of highly subdivided land is suggested by a series of conjoined enclosed areas, all approximately 10m across (S6). It is possible that this represent the interior of a larger and possibly domestic enclosure. Although an agricultural or industrial usage is also possible. To the immediate west of this area is a possible large post-built structure, measuring 26m by 12m (NHER 49210). It has been suggested that this structure could represent a late Saxon timber hall, although this is not certain, as the size is very large. The structure or pit-defined/fenced enclosure appears to follow the same alignment as the conjoined enclosures to the east and this could suggest that they are broadly contemporary.

To the immediate east of this area is a series of parallel ditches that appear to represent a series of trackways or possibly boundaries. Cropmarks following a similar alignment and plan to the east (NHER 49209) appear to represent a continuation of this site. Another group of conjoined rectilinear enclosed areas is located to the southwest at TG 4776 0443, these are less extensively as those recorded to the northeast, but exhibit a similar plan and arrangement.

A possible trackway associated with this phase of the site leads towards the fort (S1). Although this is only visible on an extremely grainy and oblique aerial photograph from July 1933 (S1). Due to the quality and the obliqueness of the 1933 image any cropmarks mapped must be treated with caution. However once rectified (to remove the distortion created by the oblique angle) the cropmarks do appear reasonably convincing. Obviously if this apparent trackway is a archaeological feature then it would suggest that it post-dates the Roman period, as it appears to head for the main eastern gate. This may indicate all the features recorded under this site are post-Roman, although the relationship between the possible trackway and the rectilinear enclosures is not certain. To the extreme north of the site is another possible trackway (S9) that appears to follow the same general alignment of these cropmarks enclosures, although the features are quite removed from the rest of the site and are therefore not definitely contemporary. The fragmentary nature of the cropmarks in this area of the site would suggest a possible field system.
S. Massey (NMP), 30 November 2006.

December 2009-January 2010. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site at Breydon Water Holiday Park.
Although the trenches excavated coincided with a number of the cropmarks in this group only a small number were found to have corresponding sub-surface remains. A north-west to south-east aligned cropmark at TG 4785 0439 was associated with a ditch that produced a small amount of Roman ceramic building material and a nearby undated ditch was potentially a continuation of a feature related to a perpendicular cropmark. A more substantial north-west to south-east aligned cropmark at TG 4775 0444 appeared to be associated with a pair of intercut, similarly-aligned ditches, neither of which produced any dating evidence.
This work also exposed a range of linear and discrete features with no corresponding cropmarks, the majority were of probable Roman date.
See report (S14) and NHER 61102 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 August 2019.

March 2023. Assessment of the Character and Significance of East Anglian Field Systems project.
The site described above was included in the dataset analysed for the Historic England-funded Assessment of East Anglian Field Systems project. See the project report (S15) for further details.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk County Council Environment Team), 22 March 2023.