NHER 61542 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Extensive remains of boundaries, enclosures, trackways and cultivation/plantation ridges across Thetford Warren

January 2019. 'Brecks from Above' and Breckland National Mapping Programme.
A complex landscape of multi-phase boundaries, enclosures, trackways and cultivation or plantation ridges is evident as earthworks, principally visible on lidar imagery (S1-S2), across Thetford Warren (NHER 54069). Some features are also visible on aerial photographs, while others have been identified during field survey. Many of the features are likely to relate to the functioning of the warren, and are most likely to be of medieval to post-medieval date. The substantial multiple banks defining the western boundary of the warren, where it abuts Downham High Warren, have been recorded separately (as NHER 61559). However, elsewhere the extent of the warren is poorly understood, and it may be that other parts of its boundary banks form part of the dense spread of features described here. Within the warren, other boundaries and enclosures may have been used for managing or trapping the rabbits, or for growing crops for their consumption (thereby enabling higher stocking levels). Others may relate to activities taking place alongside warrening, including growing arable crops or grazing livestock. Other features are likely to relate to early forestry activity. The blocks of ridges, reminiscent of ridge and furrow, could relate to the growing of forage crops, arable agriculture taking place within the warren, or early forestry plantations.
On the open heathland on the northeast side of the site (in the area now largely occupied by Thetford golf course), multiple trackways are visible, surrounding the warrener’s lodge (NHER 2760) and continuing into the surrounding forestry plantations. Within the plantations, banks dominate, with a variety of irregular and more regular arrangements visible. Some of the features were recorded by earlier surveys, for example NHER 30233, NHER 50265 and NHER 33729. Some correlate with boundaries depicted on historical maps, such as the Ordnance Survey First Edition 6 inch map (S3), although for the most part such features were not mapped as they fall outside the scope of the survey. A few of the more discrete enclosures and blocks of ridging have been recorded individually (NHER 62123, NHER 62077, NHER 62023, NHER 62114, NHER 62038), as have all the smaller discrete enclosures (NHER 61997 for example). Some areas of braided trackway have been recorded by extent. As the lidar survey was flown relatively recently, many of the earthworks probably still survive. The site lies partially in Suffolk, where it is recorded as Suffolk Historic Environment Record STN 190.
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 25 January 2019.