NHER 50762 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of medieval to post medieval date field boundaries and trackway

December 2007. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of a trackway and a series of field boundaries of probable medieval to post medieval date are visible on aerial photographs to the south of Elsing church (S1). The site is centred on TG 0521 1643. The majority of the cropmarks mapped are consistent with the field layout depicted on the 1849 Enclosure map (S2). The boundary that runs diagonally across the site from southeast to northwest does appear to predate this post medieval boundary layout. Finds of Roman, Saxon and medieval date have been found within the area (NHER 28643, 37115 and 39269) and it is therefore possible that this represents a much earlier monument. However the more fragmentary boundary that runs parallel to this feature, and that may have originally formed a trackway or double ditched boundary, appears to have been incorporated into the post medieval field layout. It is therefore possible that this diagonal boundary or trackway may have formed part of the medieval to post medieval landscape that pre-dates the Enclosure map. Two similar tracks can be seen to cut across the field layout on the Enclosure map, both leading to the Church to the north.
S. Massey (NMP), 05 December 2007.