NHER 49408 (Monument record) - Site of undated field system and/or enclosures at Oby

May 2007. Norfolk NMP.
Some of the cropmarks described below were previously recorded as part of NHER 14395.

A field system and/or group of enclosures is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S6), centred at TG 4112 1475 although the cropmarks are principally visible to the north and south of this point. The cropmarks appear to represent a single phase of activity within a larger multi-period cropmark site (NHER 49407), distinguishable due to their shared orientation and layout. Their date is unknown, but an origin in the Iron Age or Roman period seems plausible, given their general character (for example, the incorporation of a number of trackways or double-ditched boundaries). The apparent discrepancy in orientation between the site described here and that of a probable Iron Age to Roman period farmstead immediately to its northeast does not necessarily preclude a relationship between the two. Certainly, the enclosures or field system bears little resemblance to a field system of probable post-Roman date visible to its southeast (which it overlaps; NHER 14395), or to a more fragmentary field system which overlaps it to the northwest (NHER 49409). Whether the site described here is earlier or later than the latter field system is not known.

The cropmarks are visible across an area measuring approximately 770m by 715m. One of the principal elements is a trapezoidal enclosure visible at TG 4102 1484. This measures approximately 118m by 118m. It has an entrance midway along its southwest side, with a possible second entrance (perhaps defined on its east side by an inturned ditch) in its northeast side, close to its northern corner. There is a third possible entrance at its eastern corner, where the enclosure is met by a short length of trackway or double-ditched boundary. (It is notable that the southern corner of this enclosure appears to be skirted by a sinuous trackway to its south, which has been interpreted as part of a post-Roman phase of activity NHER 14395).

To the southeast (around TG 4112 1452) two conjoined rectilinear enclosures are partially visible. The most complete enclosure is roughly trapezoidal in plan and measures 116m by 85.5m. A trackway or double-ditched boundary is visible intermittently along their northeast side. Some internal subdivisions are also apparent. The southeastern enclosure appears to be overlain by (or to overlie) a trackway or multi-ditched boundary oriented northeast-southwest. This and some other cropmarks in the area could represent a separate phase of activity, but as their overall orientation and character is very similar they have been grouped with the cropmarks already described.

It should be noted that due to a paucity of control points, the rectification of many of the oblique aerial photographs of the site was very poor, and this almost certainly had an adverse effect on the accuracy of the mapping.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 22 May 2007.