NHER 57396 (Monument record) - Possible Bronze Age enclosures at Gorleston-on-Sea

Possible Bronze Age enclosures at Gorleston-on-Sea, previously recorded under NHER 45056.
S. Horlock (NMP), 19 July 2012.

February 2017.
Research undertaken in 2012 and published in (S1) suggested that two banked enclosures originally recorded from aerial photographs within NHER 45056 could feasibly be Middle Bronze Age in date. The boundaries recorded within NHER 45056 were located on former common and originally assumed to be related late in date. However two banked enclosures on the northern and southern edges of the common – Site A, centred on TG 5172 0187, and Site B to the north at TG 5149 0298 were tentatively suggested as feasibly be prehistoric in date, due to indirect links and similarities with excavated Middle Bronze Age sites, in particular the enclosure at Ormesby St Michael (NHER 30626).
The archaeology is complex and the dating sequence fragmentary, but recent developer-funded work dated two parallel ditches within a complex area of field boundaries (NHER 45158 and 43494) and banked enclosures (NHER 45056) to the Middle Bronze Age (S2); one contained a Middle Bronze Age hoard. Following the same alignment as the parallel ditches and approximately 150m to their north, lay a potentially contemporary banked enclosure and an associated series of banks (Site A). This enclosure and another similar enclosure (Site B) approximately 1km further to the north, are of broadly similar size to Ormesby, measuring 140-150m across, and square or rectilinear in shape. The southern enclosure (Site A) and its associated boundaries are located within the area of numerous Middle or Late Bronze Age worked and burnt flint scatters and excavations revealed numerous Bronze Age pits (NHER 11788). The northern enclosure (Site B) has no associated finds or excavation results to support a Bronze Age date, but its similarity in size, shape and construction methods, and its position on former common, could feasibly suggest that it could represent another Ormesby-type enclosure.
It must though be noted that the original medieval to post medieval interpretation may still be valid for the most, if not all, of these features recorded within NHER 45056.
S. Horlock (NHES), 8th February 2017.