NHER 54635 (Monument record) - Site of major post medieval (or earlier) field boundary or trackway, with additional field boundaries

May 2011. Norfolk NMP.
A substantial curvilinear trackway and/or field boundary, of probable post medieval or perhaps earlier date, is visible as cropmarks and soilmarks on aerial photographs (S1)-(S3), together with two narrower ancillary boundaries to its south. The exact nature of the trackway, which could instead be a drain or simply a substantial field boundary, is unclear: it has been mapped as a ditch throughout its length although some segments look more like a bank (or an embanked ditch) on some photographs. It is visible between TG 1221 0186, where it may have connected to the earthworks recorded at Hart’s Farm (NHER 54634), and TG 1261 0135. Two ancillary boundaries to its south could be of recent agricultural origin but fit the pattern of enclosure depicted on the 1849 Wymondham Tithe Map (S4). By contrast, the curvilinear boundary, although partially depicted on the Tithe Map, would seem to relate to an earlier phase of enclosure and/or drainage.
Like the substantial boundaries/drains 650m to the northeast (NHER 36746) which have a similar appearance, the features described here, together with unrecorded cropmarks that correspond with boundaries on the Tithe Map, form part of an extensive post medieval field pattern, with traces of potentially earlier elements, 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 Wymondham Tithe Map (S6) (and have therefore not been recorded) their origins and survival, in particular in relation to this more substantial monument, are perhaps worthy of consideration. This is also the area formerly occupied or bordered by Wymondham Common, shown on Faden’s 1797 Map of Norfolk (S5) for example. The other more complex and substantial elements not depicted on the Tithe Map, additional to the features described here, are recorded as NHER 36746, 54633-4 and 54636.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 31 May 2011.