NHER 54633 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Site of field boundaries of post medieval and perhaps earlier date

May 2011. Norfolk NMP.
Some of the soil- and cropmarks described below were previously recorded as part of NHER 15765.
Field boundaries of post medieval and perhaps earlier date are visible as cropmarks and soilmarks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S3) centred at TG 1294 0225. The more regular boundaries are for the most part depicted on Wymondham Tithe Map of 1839 (S4), and are therefore of post medieval date; the map shows the double-ditched boundary or trackway forming the southern side of the site as only a single line. A narrow field or broad trackway defining the western limit of the site is curvilinear and may have earlier, medieval origins. It perhaps represents the edge of a relict landscape feature such as a wood, and it is interesting to note that the western ditch is contiguous with the edge of Oak Plantation which lies immediately to the south. At TG 1285 0222 this same ditch is cut by (or less probably overlays) an infilled pit (not mapped).
The boundaries are part of an extensive post medieval field pattern, with traces of earlier elements, visible as crop- and soilmarks stretching from the outskirts of Wymondham in the west to the parish boundary to the east. These surround the presumed medieval ringwork of Moot Hill (NHER 9438), and while most are depicted on the Tithe Map (and have therefore not been recorded) their origins and survival in relation to this more substantial monument are perhaps worthy of consideration. The more complex and substantial elements not depicted on the Tithe Map, including the field boundaries described here, are recorded as NHER 36746 and 54633-6; those 100m to the south, recorded as NHER 54636, are clearly part of the same pattern as those recorded here.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 31 May 2011.