NHER 14099 (Monument record) - Cropmarks of a possible Early Saxon linear earthwork

Linear earthwork as crop and soilmark and earthwork.
Noted by (S1), (S2), (S3) and (S4).
For details see publication in (S5).
E. Rose (NAU), 28 May 1982.

19 July 1996. NLA air photography.
Good, very clear images. Two ditches visible: one wide, one narrow running parallel to each other.
M. Brennand (NLA), 20 August 2001.

March 2007. Norfolk NMP
Cropmarks of a linear banks and ditches of possible early Anglo-Saxon date are visible on aerial photographs (S6-S9). The central grid reference for these cropmarks is TG 3572 1684. Cropmarks of linear banks and ditches are present on a southwest to northeast alignment. They are visible for 518m between TG 3553 1667, close to Horning parish church (NHER 8459), to TG 3588 1702. The northwest side of this linear feature is defined by a narrow ditch, measuring 6.5m wide, with an 11m wide bank to its southeast. Adjacent to this is a ditch ranging form 11m to 22m in width with a further 12m wide bank to its southeast. The cropmarks of the two ditches are visible along the whole length of the linear feature, but the banks are only visible to the southwest of Church Road. Cropmarks of linear ditches and banks extend at right angles to the main linear feature and are likely to be field boundaries leading away from it. One of the ditches appears to cross the cropmarks of the banks suggesting that it had been cut after the banks had been levelled.

This linear feature extended across a peninsula of land between the River Bure, to the south, and the Ant to the north. The marshland associated with these rivers would have meant that the banks and ditches formed a defensive barrier across the peninsula effectively cutting it off. The medieval abbey of Holm St Benet’s (NHER 5199) is located further along the peninsula (S10). The bank and ditch were first recorded as an earthwork in the eighteenth century but had been levelled by 1831 (S5). It has been suggested that this defensive earthwork was of Early Anglo-Saxon date based on its similarity to other linear earthworks in the county. There is no artefactual evidence to support this date but Middle Anglo-Saxon pottery has been found immediately to its east (NHER 8446). It is possible that the ditch continues to the north to the edge of the marshland as NHER 49282.
J. Albone (NMP), 26 March 2007

For a similar feature, see the Fleam Dyke, Horningsea, Cambridgeshire. This cuts off a similar horn-shaped peninsula with an important Anglo-Saxon church of royal status.
D. Gurney (NLA), 9 October 2009.