NHER 49224 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of probable Bronze Age round barrows

March 2007. Norfolk NMP.
A group of ring ditches is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1), centred at TG 3166 2543. Although they are visible on only one set of photographs, two of the ring ditches are very convincing as archaeological features (those at TG 3166 2546 and TG 3166 2544); the two other partial ring ditches less so. The general character of the features and their topographic position, on the edge of a plateau overlooking a valley to the south, suggest that they probably represent the site of Bronze Age round barrows. Together with a more isolated ring ditch visible 75m to the southwest (NHER 49223), they may have formed part of a linear barrow cemetery (NHER 49265), although a north-south alignment is also evident within this group alone. The ring ditches appear to be overlain by elements of a group of multi-period field boundaries and trackways (NHER 49222). There could be further ring ditches visible in the surrounding area, but nothing that is certain enough to warrant mapping by the NMP.

The northernmost ring ditch (at TG 3166 2546) is represented as being oval in plan by the mapping, although it is not notably so on the aerial photographs. (There is no evidence to suggest it is a Neolithic oval barrow or mortuary enclosure.) It measures 25m long and 19.5m wide. Immediately to its south (at TG 3166 2544) is a more circular ring ditch, defined by a substantial ditch, which measures approximately 21m in diameter. This overlaps a third possible ring ditch on its south side, of which only a fragment is visible. A further possible fragmentary ring ditch is visible to the south (at TG 3167 2539); this would have had a diameter of approximately 25m.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 21 March 2007.