NHER 44820 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Cropmarks of a possible section of Stone Street Roman road

June 2006. Norfolk NMP
Cropmarks of a possible section of Stone Street Roman road (NHER 10636) are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S3). This group of cropmarks are centred on TM 3221 9227. Two parallel ditch cropmarks, probably roadside ditches, are present on a roughly northwest to southeast alignment for 380m between TM 3200 9237 and TM 3235 9220. Their alignment continues for a further 116m to the southeast as a 5m wide negative cropmark representing a compacted or metalled road surface. The position of these cropmarks lies directly in line with the straight course of Stone Street Roman road (NHER 10636) further to the northwest and southeast. Along this section the present road (the B1332, here called Norwich Road) curves away from this line to the northeast for a distance of 900m and lies up to 100m away from the cropmarks. It is likely that the cropmarks relate to the original Roman course of the road.

The northern detour of this section of the road is not a recent change as has been suggested (see NHER 10636). The road is shown with a curved route on a 1713 Estate map (illustrated in S4) and on Faden’s 1797 Map of Norfolk (S5). The area of the change to the route of the road corresponds to a small valley. The modern road crosses the valley where it is wider and the slopes are gentler, which may provide an explanation for its change of course. The area of these cropmarks was investigated as part of a trial trenching evaluation (NHER 40213) (S6). Although some ditches corresponding to the cropmarks were identified in the trenches they were undated apart from fragments of abraded Roman tile. Many of the ditches corresponding to the cropmark features had very shallow profiles indicating that they may have been completely eroded by ploughing elsewhere in the field.

A further two parallel ditch cropmarks are present to the north of the road cropmarks at TM 3220 9233. One of these appears to correspond to a possible Saxon or medieval feature identified in the trial trenching (S6). A linear ditch cropmark is also present to the south of the road. This ditch was also revealed in the trial trenching, but was undated.
J. Albone (NMP), 27 June 2006