NHER 44978 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of a hengiform ring ditch

August 2006. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of a penannular ring ditch, possibly the remains of a Bronze Age round barrow or hengiform monument, are visible on aerial photographs to the north of Burgh Road, Wheatacre (S1). The site is centred on TM 4685 9449. This is located to the immediate northwest of a larger concentric Bronze Age barrow (NHER 44879). It is possible that this smaller ring is a later monument, sited in reference to the first, potentially of Middle Bronze Age date. Although it is of hengiform shape and therefore has affinities with earlier monuments of the late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age. Another possible barrow or similar prehistoric ‘ritual’ monument, with an interrupted or causewayed ditch, is located 150m to the east (NHER 44977). Another possible round barrow is suggested by an incomplete ring ditch 50m to the north (NHER 44982). This monument group is located at approximately 17m OD, just below the 20m plateau on which Wheatacre village sits, and overlooking the lower slopes of the Waveney Valley to the north.

The ring ditch is sub-circular and penannular, 8m across, with bulbous terminals, in particular the northern terminal, giving it a hengiform appearance. The ditch is quite broad, 1.5m across, considering the small overall size of the monument.

Another alternative explanation is that this ditch represents the drip-eave gully of a roundhouse, as it is located within an enclosure of unknown but probable Iron Age to Roman date (NHER 44983). Although the cropmark, at 1.5m wide, is quite broad for such a normally ephemeral feature.
S. Massey (NMP), 18 August 2006.