NHER 50777 (Monument record) - Site of trackway of probable Iron Age and/or Roman date

January 2008. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks described below were previously recorded as part of NHER 4379.
A sinuous ditched trackway is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S8), between TG 2583 1958 and TG 2563 1917. The trackway more or less follows the line of the western side of a Roman camp (NHER 4379), for the most part being outside its circuit but curving into its northwest corner. This co-location suggests that the trackway either immediately pre-dates the large military enclosure, or dates to the period after it had fallen out of use but nevertheless remained a visible feature in the landscape. Given the presumably strategic siting of the camp, it seems most likely that the trackway was laid out in relation to the camp, rather than vice versa. A D-shaped enclosure (NHER 50776), possibly a farmstead, visible within the camp may be of similar Iron Age and/or Roman date, as may some of the field boundaries, minor trackways and other linear ditches (NHER 50778) which surround it. At least some of the latter, however, cut across the trackway and presumably belong to a different phase of activity; others seem to respect it.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 8 January 2008.