NHER 52376 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Possible Iron Age-Roman field boundary, part of which continues in use in post medieval period

October 2009. Norfolk NMP.
A linear ditch aligned north northeast-south south west is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S4), stretching from TG 1616 1646 to TG 1623 1714.
The northern 167m section of this feature is visible as a field boundary on the Felthorpe Tithe Map of 1840 (S5) and subsequent historic maps (S6)-(S7), however the 475m to the south is not. The fact that the cropmarks to the south are fainter in appearance may indicate that this is an earlier boundary which had gone out of use, only the northern section continuing into the post-medieval period.
Finds from the vicinity include medieval pottery (NHER 7766), multi-period metalwork (NHER 33092), including Bronze Age and Roman objects, as well further prehistoric flint implements, Roman coins and objects, and Late Saxon metalwork (NHER 33090). Further multi-period metalwork including an Iron Age to Roman brooch was recovered close to the southern end of the feature (NHER 33383).
Bearing in mind that this linear ditch appears to cut an earlier, possibly prehistoric trackway, at TG 1616 1677, it is reasonable to suggest that this feature may be Iron Age to Roman in date, and that part of it continues as a field boundary into the post medieval period. It appears to form part of a series of possible Iron Age-Roman field boundaries on the same alignment in the vicinity NHER 52379, 52380, 52382 and 52384, and may in fact represent part of an extensive Iron Age-Roman agricultural landscape, such as that recorded in the Broadland area of Norfolk (NHER 6096).
E. Bales (NMP), October 2009.