NHER 61171 (Monument record) - Linear earthwork bank and ditch

September 2015.
An earthwork of a substantial linear bank and ditch are present along the north side of Warren’s Lane. The bank, which stands to a height of at least 1.5m, is present for a distance of 150m between TM 03905 95895 and TM 04048 95930. A ditch is located on the south side of the bank and an ancient hedgerow and trees are present on the earthwork. Although the bank does not survive along the central and western part of Warren’s Lane the ditch is present and continues to form a field boundary. Along the central section of Warren’s Lane the ground level of the field to its north lies approximately 0.5m higher than that to its south which may reflect a long-term difference in land-use on each side of the boundary.

This earthwork bank and ditch appears to form a continuation of the bank and ditch recorded as earthworks and cropmarks further to the east (NHER 33952 and NHER 58719). Although the bank further to the east had originally been interpreted as a the agger of a Roman road it has now been confirmed as being a linear boundary feature of late prehistoric date. It is likely that the section of bank and ditch at Warren’s Lane, along with those to its east, forms a northern extension of the Bunn’s Bank complex of linear boundary earthworks lying to the south and east of Attleborough (see for example NHER 9206). A separate section of bank and ditch earthwork extending northwards from the Warren’s Lane bank may be of a contemporary date and is recorded separately as NHER 61172.

Although Warren's Lane is now no more than a footpath, the 1815 enclosure map (S1) shows it as a road called Baconsthorpe Street and, further west beyond the junction with Stoney Lane, as Salters Way. It is likely that Warren's Lane developed alongside the linear earthwork and that it is at least medeival, if not earlier, in origin.
J. Albone (HES), 29 September 2015