NHER 42145 (Monument record) - Probable post medieval drains

November 2005. Norfolk NMP.
A group of probable drains is visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs (S1), (S2), (S3), (S4), (S5) and (S6), principally centred around TG 4558 2407 but extending northwards to TG 4552 2446. The main element of the site is a ditch, oriented north north west to south south east, which extends from TG 4552 2446 to TG 4566 2398. Other linear ditches are aligned near parallel or perpendicular to this. A possible trackway or bank, flanked by ditches for at least part of its length, lies to the west of the southern end of the main ditch (visible from TG 4553 2400 to TG 4563 2404) but should be treated with caution as the cropmark is not particularly convincing. A substantial L-shaped ditch visible between TG 4554 2416 and TG 4565 2416 (and possibly further to the east, where it becomes too dubious to have been mapped) may be of natural origin rather than being man-made. Some of the features cut across several drains and a trackway depicted on historic Ordnance Survey maps, such as the 2nd edition 25 inch, (S7) and (S8), suggesting that they pre-date this drainage pattern. They all lie within a single block of land on both the Enclosure Map (S9) and the Tithe Map (S10), and while it is possible that they are the remnants of an even earlier drainage pattern, they might equally be minor drains ignored by the maps’ surveyors. There is nothing to suggest that they pre-date the post medieval drainage of this area.

There is no evidence on the most recent consulted aerial photographs that any element of the site now survives as an earthwork.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 7 November 2005.