NHER 65241 (Monument record) - Undated possible ditches and post-medieval field boundary

January 2020. Geophysical Survey.
Magnetometer survey of proposed development site.
This survey identified no anomalies of obvious archaeological significance.
There are though a number of weak and somewhat ill-defined trends that may represent infilled ditches, although it is noted that a natural or agricultural origin is also possible. These include several roughly parallel north-west to south-east anomalies, one of which turns through 90 degrees at its northern end. There are clearly unrelated to the modern field boundaries and may represent elements of an earlier field system. It should be noted that trial trenching 250m to the south-west of this site revealed a ditch on a broadly similar alignment that produced a small quantity of Iron Age pottery (NHER 65240).
The other weak linear trends include a sinuous east-to-west aligned anomaly at the northern end of the field and two shorter anomalies that appear to extend to the north of this possible feature. Two very poorly-defined sub-circular trends are though regarded as most likely natural in origin or the result of agricultural activity.
A particularly distinct north-to-south aligned positive linear anomaly corresponds with a former field boundary depicted on the Burgh St Margaret tithe map of 1838 (S1). Numerous similarly-aligned weak linear responses are probably due to modern ploughing.
Various small discrete ferrous anomalies were probably caused by ferrous material or ceramic building material in the topsoil.
See report (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 10 August 2021.