Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

Markshall sites discovered by air photography.

1929. RAF air photograph.
In northeast corner of parish.
Double ring ditches noted from air photographs RAF AP 1878 9 18 VI 29. Site of round barrow. Also D shaped earthwork (see NHER 9583). (S1) called disc barrow.
See (S2) and (S3).
R. R. Clarke (NCM).

NAU aerial photographs of various dates from 1 August 1973 to 12 July 1978: From TG2305A - AU (inclusive of frames of other sites in some instances). Cropmark of double concentric ring ditch with apparent causeway on the north west side of the outer circle. Site adjacent to a 'D' shaped enclosure (NHER 9583). Site first noted (by R. R. Clarke (NCM)?) on RAF aerial photograph 1878 of 18 June 1929.
D. A. Edwards (NAU), 29th January 1980.

Visited at request of Peter Wade-Martins to monitor effect of pig husbandry. No ground disturbance noted. Troughs and water pipes laid on surface. Area will be returned to arable later in the year.
H. Paterson (A&E) 6 July 1999.

27 July 1995. NLA air photography.
Cropmark visible.
H. Clare (NLA), 20 April 2001.

14 June 1996. NLA air photography.
Cropmarks of double concentric ring ditch still visible.
S. Massey (NLA), 8 August 2001.

25 June 1996. NLA air photography.
Cropmarks visible.
H. Clare (NLA), 23 August 2001.

2 July 1996. NLA air photography.
Cropmarks of hengiform concentric ring ditch still visible.
S. Massey (NLA), 23 July 2001.

April 2010. Norfolk NMP.
The barrow, henge or henge-like monument described above is visible as a cropmark and soilmark on aerial photographs (S8)-(S29). NMP mapping has altered the central grid reference of the site from TG 2326 0536 to TG 2327 0536, although the topography of the area will have had a detrimental effect on the accuracy of the mapping.
Although described above and in some published sources as a round barrow, its interpretation as a henge or henge-like monument of Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age date is perhaps more likely (see NMR TG 20 NW 159, the publication of the Norwich Southern Bypass excavations (S30), and Ashwin 1996 (S31), for example). This is particularly the case since the NMP mapping has identified traces of what appear to be a pair of ‘hengiform’ banks within the inner ring ditch (clearest on RAF vertical aerial photographs from 1956), and an encircling bank between the two ring ditches. These lend the site a distinctly ‘hengiform’ appearance. What appears to be a short external bank to the north has been suggested as the possible remains of an earlier long barrow (Sarah Horlock, NLA, pers. comm.). More clearly evident is the apparent relationship between the site and the large D-shaped enclosure to its immediate southwest. The latter is as yet unparalleled, and the association between the two, whether they were in contemporary use or sited in relation to one another, can only be speculated upon.
Both ring ditches are broadly circular in plan. The outer measures 42.5m in diameter, the inner 18m in diameter. The space within the internal hengiform banks measures only 9m in diameter.
With the exception of a possible roundhouse cropmark recorded as part of NHER 53475, all other curvilinear marks visible in this field, including those depicted to the south of the site in figures 2 and 180 of Ashwin and Bates 2000 (S30), have been dismissed as being the product of the background geology or modern activity.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 15 April 2010.

See (S32) for additional aerial photographs.
H. Hamilton (HES), 22 August 2013.

Monument Types

• RING DITCH (Unknown date)
• LONG BARROW? (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
• HENGE? (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• HENGIFORM MONUMENT (Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 1501 BC)
• RING DITCH (Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument

Sources and further reading

Related records - none

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Caistor St Edmund (Parish Summary)