Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

5 May 1982. Ordnance Survey air photography.
Cropmarks noted by B. Cushion (NLA) and shown to E. Rose (NLA) May 1994.
Various small rectangular enclosures, some very oblong, with what may be a trackway along the north side.
Copy of (S1) in file for location purposes, though the marks have not come out on this.
B. Cushion (NLA) and E. Rose (NLA) 1 June 1994.

September 2005. Norfolk NMP.
Cropmarks of an undated, possibly Roman, field system and medieval to post medieval property boundaries are visible on aerial photographs (S2-S4). The central grid reference for these cropmarks has been adjusted from TG 4745 1360 to TG 4750 1366. Cropmarks of a rectilinear field system are present on a roughly northwest to southeast axis on both sides of Pound Lane. A double ditched field boundary extends for 80m between TG 4751 1374 and TG 4759 1371. It continues as a single ditch for a further 17m to the southeast of Pound Lane. Further to the northwest, as second double ditched field boundary extends on a slightly offset alignment from TG 4751 1373 to TG 4745 1376. These double ditches form the northeastern side of the main visible area of the field system. Parallel to these ditches to the southeast is a single ditch that extends from TG 4748 1369 to TG 4765 1360 and is aligned on a Bronze Age round barrow (NHER 27664). The absence of the field boundary across the rd of the round barrow indicates that the barrow was still and extant mound when the field system was laid out. A further parallel northwest to southeast aligned ditch is positioned 14m to the southwest. Arranged roughly perpendicular to these northwest to southeast aligned ditches are further boundary ditches defining individual fields. Although the cropmarks are quite fragmentary, the possible size of some individual fields can be determined. A field centred on TG 4751 1371 appears to measure 65m by 22m. A larger field located to the east to the round barrow at TG 4758 1367 measures up to 69m by 45m. Two ditches forming a T-junction arrangement at TG 4767 1373 appear to continue the field system to the northeast. It is likely that these ditches form part of a field system of Roman date.
Five linear ditch cropmarks are present on the same roughly north to south alignment as the modern field pattern. One of these, between TG 4746 1352 and TG 4751 1369 corresponds to a field boundary shown on the first edition 6" Ordnance Survey map (S5). Further ditches on the same alignment are present 27m to the west and 38m to the east of this ditch. The ditch to the east is visible as a cropmark cutting across the Bronze Age ring ditch, suggesting that the barrow had been levelled by the time these ditches were laid out. It is possible that these ditches define narrow plots of land relating to medieval to post medieval properties fronting onto the main road to the south. In the west of the group, a further ditch on the same alignment extends intermittently from TG 4737 1356 across Pound Lane to TG 4744 1377. Two ditches join it at right angles close to its northern end. It is not clear whether this ditch relates to the medieval pattern, with which it is most closely aligned, or the earlier Roman field system. Another ditch on this alignment is present in the eastern part of the group between TG 4762 1360 and TG 4764 1367. At the northern end of this ditch is a curved ditch cropmark (NHER 27696).
J. Albone (NMP), 28 September 2005

Monument Types

• FIELD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FIELD SYSTEM (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• BOUNDARY DITCH (Medieval to 19th Century - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• DITCH (Medieval to 19th Century - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• TOFT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

Related records - none

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Filby (Parish Summary)