NHER 6914 (Cropmark and Earthwork record) - Probable Bronze Age barrow cemetery

1975. Possible ring ditch.
E. Rose (NAU).

December 2004. Norfolk NMP.
Cropmarks of five ring ditches, probably Bronze Age round barrows and a square enclosure, possibly an Iron Age square barrow, are visible on aerial photographs (S1-2). The grid reference for these cropmarks has been adjusted from TG 3370 3400 to TG 3377 3400. No evidence of a cropmark ring ditch was visible at the original grid reference. Five ring ditch cropmarks and a possible square enclosure are present forming a barrow cemetery. The largest of the ring ditches is located in the centre of the group at TG 33755 34015 and has a sub-circular plan. It is incomplete, possibly intentionally, with a 12m gap in the ditch on its eastern side. The maximum external diameter of this ring ditch is 16.5m. As with all of these ring ditches, the ditch is less than 1m wide, resulting in an internal diameter of 15.5m. A pit, possibly a grave is visible towards the western side of the area enclosed by the ditch. Two complete sub-circular ring ditches with 14m external diameters are present at TG 33730 33985 and TG 33770 33965. Another complete ring ditch, with a circular plan and an 8.5m diameter, is present at TG 33725 34025. The fifth ring ditch in the cemetery, located at TG 33790 34030, is also circular and has an external diameter of 12.5m. . It is incomplete, with large gaps in the ditch present on the northwest and southeast sides as a result of it being crossed by a modern field boundary. A possible square enclosure with rounded corners is visible at TG 33835 33975. It measures just less than 9m across externally with a ditch of less than 1m wide. It is possible that this is a small square barrow of Iron Age date associated with the round barrows to its west. This barrow cemetery occupies an interesting landscape setting. It lies on the northeast face of a small spur of land overlooking a valley at approximately 17m OD. The valley, which is now dry, is shown to contain a stream leading out to the sea on Faden’s 1797 map (S3). Although the site would have been kilometres inland when these monuments were constructed their physical relationship to the valley is probably largely unchanged. A double ring ditch also lies on the north side of this valley at TG 3369 3455 (NHER 38994). To the southwest of the cemetery, three ring ditches form an alignment, with the cemetery located at its northeastern end. These three ring ditches are located 370m (NHER 39132), 780m (NHER 39120) and 1.3km (NHER 12778) to the southwest of the cemetery. It is possible that some of the barrows in the cemetery survived as earthworks into the medieval or post medieval periods. A field boundary ditch, marked on the Bacton 1827 enclosure and 1845 tithe maps (S4-5), is visible as a cropmark passing to the east of the largest ring ditch in the cemetery (NHER 39149). The ditch appears to kink around the ring ditch cropmark, suggesting that the barrow may still have been an earthwork, when the boundary was established. Further to the southeast at approximately TG 3385 3386 another curve is shown in the same boundary on the enclosure map (S4). It is possible that this marks the location of another barrow, although there is no cropmarks evidence to support this suggestion.
(S1-5)
J. Albone (NMP), 21 December 2004