Record Details

NHER Number:31746
Type of record:Monument
Name:Cropmarks of undated boundaries, enclosure and trackway

Summary

One or two undated boundaries formed by multiple parallel ditches, an enclosure and a trackway are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The boundaries are orientated on the same alignment as an adjacent field system to the west (NHER 38961) which may be a contemporary or later associated feature. Although the date of the boundaries is not known, similar features in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire are thought to date to the late Bronze Age or Iron Age and have been interpreted as estate or territorial boundaries.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TG 2810 3595
Map Sheet:TG23NE
Parish:GIMINGHAM, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

28 June 1990. NAU aerial photography.
Triple linear boundary ditches.
D. Edwards (NAU).

There is a fourth ditch in one place. Also other attached enclosures predating present fields. Very strange! Could it be Iron Age?
E. Rose (NLA), 26 January 1996.

December 2004. Norfolk NMP.
A multiple ditched boundary (described above) is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs (S1 to S2), centred at TG 2810 3599. Similar features have been mapped from aerial photographs in Lincolnshire (S3) and the Yorkshire Wolds (S4). The shared orientation of the site with the field system located predominantly to its west (NHER 38961) suggests that the two are contemporary, or that the field system was laid out in relation to the multiple ditched boundary. In the absence of a direct relationship, however, this is not necessarily the case. Furthermore, as with the field system, elements of the site described here seem to line up with field boundaries depicted on historic maps (for example, S5). This suggests that either the dating (and perhaps the interpretation) of the site is doubtful, or that there was perhaps a certain continuity of landscape division, and/or that the boundary survived as a significant landscape marker after the Roman period.

The boundary consists of four discontinuous ditches made up of curvilinear or sinuous segments. It is visible for approximately 390m from TG 2824 3613 to TG 2806 3578 and is up to 38m wide. 80m to its west, parallel ditches may define a second multiple ditched boundary made up of two to three ditches. Narrow parallel ditches between the two (from TG 2803 3593 to TG 2814 3589), which correspond with a causeway in the eastern boundary, may mark a trackway or a further boundary. To the north, beyond more narrow ditches, what appears to be part of a semi circular enclosure is visible, apparently butting onto the west side of the boundary. The function of this enclosure is uncertain, and it is not possible to tell whether it is a contemporary feature.

The principal boundary occupies a distinctive topographic position, cutting across the narrowest point of the watershed between Mundesley Beck and Brandfield Beck.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 6 December 2004.

Monument Types

  • BOUNDARY (Unknown date)
  • BOUNDARY DITCH (Unknown date)
  • CURVILINEAR ENCLOSURE (Unknown date)
  • DITCH (Unknown date)
  • ENCLOSURE (Unknown date)
  • LINEAR FEATURE (Unknown date)
  • MULTIPLE DITCH SYSTEM (Unknown date)
  • TRACKWAY (Unknown date)
  • BOUNDARY (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC to 42 AD)
  • BOUNDARY DITCH (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC to 42 AD)
  • CURVILINEAR ENCLOSURE (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC to 42 AD)
  • DITCH (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC to 42 AD)
  • ENCLOSURE (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC to 42 AD)
  • LINEAR FEATURE (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC to 42 AD)
  • MULTIPLE DITCH SYSTEM (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC to 42 AD)
  • TRACKWAY (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC to 42 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

<S1>Vertical Aerial Photograph: BKS. 1988. BKS 2375-6 03-SEP-1988 (NCC 4569-70).
<S2>Oblique Aerial Photograph: Edwards, D.A. (NLA). 1990. NHER TG 2835C-E (NLA 267/GBP6-8) 28-JUN-1990.
<S3>Article in Monograph: Boutwood, Y.. 1998. Prehistoric Linear Boundaries in Lincolnshire and its Fringes.. Lincolnshire's Archaeology from the Air. Bewley, R.H. (ed.). pp 29-46.
<S4>Monograph: Stoertz, C.. 1997. Ancient Landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds.. RCHME Report. particularly fig 43 n 11.
<S5>Map: James Wright. 1839. Gimingham Tithe Map (NRO DN/TA 294) ) ). 3 chains: 1inch.

Related records

38961Related to: Cropmarks of possible Iron Age to Roman field system (Monument)

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