NHER 52485 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of medieval or post medieval post mill, and perhaps also of Bronze Age round barrow

February 2010. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks recorded below were previously recorded as part (context 1) of NHER 9585.
A ring ditch is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1)-(S12), centred at TG 2424 0541; it should be noted that the polygon relating the designation of this site as a Scheduled Monument falls some 77.5m further to the east. A cross-shaped mark at the centre of the ring ditch indicates that it was the site of a medieval and/or post-medieval post mill. However, the site lies on the southeastern edge of the probable remains of a dispersed Bronze Age round barrow cemetery (NHER 53403), and it is entirely possible that the post mill was sited on the pre-existing mound of a round barrow. This type of reuse has been noted elsewhere in Norfolk, for example NHER 27353 at Ormesby St Margaret. The ring ditch overlies or, more probably, is overlain by a linear ditch, orientated north-south; another ditch, orientated northwest-southeast, just clips and perhaps respects the northeast side of the ring ditch. These are both part of a large group of ditched boundaries (NHER 52489) which appear to represent several phases of field systems and trackways.
The ring ditch is circular in plan and measures 26m in diameter. The ditch circuit has been mapped as being complete, although it is very indistinct on its northern side, where it crosses a palaeochannel or similar geological feature, and on its western side, where it is very faint suggesting that there might have once been a causeway on this side. This is particularly the case on (S5), on which the ‘terminals’ on each side of the missing/invisible section of ditch have a vaguely swollen, hengiform appearance, although it is still just about possible to make out the faint continuation of the ditch.
It should be noted that due to the topography and the nature of the available control points the rectification of even vertical aerial photographs for this area was problematic, and this is likely to have affected the accuracy of the mapping.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 11 February 2010.