NHER 49360 (Monument record) - Cropmarks of field system of possible Roman to post medieval date

April 2007. Norfolk NMP.
Extensive cropmarks of a field system are visible on aerial photographs (S1)-(S10), centred at TG 3063 2290. The field system’s morphology – a broadly co-axial pattern with the principal boundaries defined by double ditches or trackways – is characteristic of sites of probable Iron Age and/or Roman date identified elsewhere in Norfolk. The fact that parts of the site are slighted by later boundaries and roads depicted on post medieval and modern maps reinforces the suggested origin in the Roman and perhaps even Iron Age period. It is significant that the line of a Roman road (NHER 2796) runs along Anchor Street to the north of the site, and that the road and the field system are oriented on slightly different alignments. Finds of Roman date (as well as those from other periods) have been recovered from the area of the site (e.g. NHER 20189 and 37202). At the same time, other parts of the site conform to, or, more probably, have influenced the later pattern of enclosure, suggesting a long period of use. Some elements were clearly in use in the post medieval period, as they are depicted on historic maps, e.g. Tunstead Enclosure Map (S11).

Remnants of two possibly earlier sites are evident in the vicinity of New Barn Farms, distinguishable from the main field system due to their different orientation. NHER 49361 represents a rectilinear arrangement of conjoined enclosures, possibly a farmstead. Its rectilinear plan is typical of sites of the Iron Age and Roman periods, but it presumably pre-dates the more extensive field system, perhaps reflecting an Iron Age to early Roman date for the former and a Roman or later Roman date for the latter. Rectilinear cropmarks to the northeast (NHER 49362) may represent part of an even earlier field system.

The principal field system is visible as an area of cropmarks measuring 2.165km by 1.825km. It incorporates a possible rectilinear enclosure at TG 3043 2280, which measures 59m long by 33m wide. Further cropmarks to the southeast (NHER 36748) probably represent a continuation of the same system of land division. Additional cropmarks to the west lie outside the study area of the current NMP project and await further investigation and mapping. Some of the cropmarks mapped to the west of the railway line (NHER 13586) were mapped from unrectified parts of the photographs, and the mapping may be less accurate as a consequence.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 26 April 2007.