NHER 51423 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Modern pit

March 2007. Systematic Fieldwalking and Metal-detecting Survey.
Field survey on proposed line of Norwich Northern Distributor Route (Field 1).
An aircraft crash site was identified during this work, represented by twisted aluminium airframe and some iron fragments that appeared to be associated with a shallow crater.
See reports (S1) and (S2) for further details.
Although the aircraft crash site was previously associated with the infilled pit recorded at this location it appears that the main concentration of debris was actually identified a little way to the east. It is therefore now recorded separately as NHER 63367. See notes below.
H. Hamilton (NLA), 10 April 2008. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 28 July 2015 and 4 July 2019.

November 2009. Norfolk NMP.
A large, recently filled pit with surrounding upcast banks is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs from 1946 (S3), at TG 1511 1560, in the close vicinity of where twisted aluminium finds were found during a fieldwalking survey in 2007.
The pit itself measures up to 39m in diameter, with upcast banks of spoil up to 10m in width on its north-western and south-eastern sides. This may indicate the site of an aircraft crash, although the features may also relate to agricultural activity or an extraction pit, but the site was only visible on one set of photographs, and could not be identified with any greater certainty.
E. Bales (NMP), October 2009. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 9 May 2019.

May 2014-January 2015. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey on proposed line of Norwich Northern Distributor Route (Area F3a).
This feature was visible as a broad area of high magnitude magnetic disturbance. The magnitude of the disturbance is suggestive of buried ferrous debris.
See report (S4) and NHER 63366 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 9 May 2019.

May 2019.
It would appear that the main concentration of probable craft debris was actually recovered approximately 100m to the north-east of this location. Although the main report on the 2007 fieldwalking (S1) is unclear on the exact location of the probable aircraft wreckage, an earlier interim report (S2) clearly marks the position of the main concentration at c. TG 1521 1565. The aircraft crash site is therefore now recorded separately at this location (NHER 51423). Although it was initially thought that this was probably a World War Two crash site it has now been suggested that the wreckage may be that of a Hawker Siddley Trident that crashed in this area in June 1966. If this is the case then it definitely cannot be associated with the feature identified at this location, which is visible on 1946 aerial photographs.
P. Watkins (HES), 4 July 2019.