Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

March 1946. RAF aerial photograph.
Shows straight linear feature, of varying form with gaps, extending between two medieval moated sites (NHER 7009 and NHER 1056). Shows as ridge, with northern boundary ditch within field already shown as site NHER 4380, where it also becomes a tangent to a northward curving ditched causeway section of former road line of Attleborough to Wymondham roads in grassland. Broad ridge is noted in east where it approaches Carr Lane and site NHER 1056, soilmark between the two earthwork features. Possible Roman road, but not obvious further to east and west?
B. Cushion (NLA) 3 November 1998.

Parts of the feature are visible on Norfolk County Council Highways aerial photographs (undated but before bypass built) lodged at NLA. These show that the actual section where the bypass was built between sites NHER 33181 and NHER 4080 did not have any visible cropmark or earthwork. The section within site NHER 4380 is south of the end of the suggested Roman road running north-east. Towards Besthorpe Carr the Highways air photographs show a number of linear features probably post medieval field boundaries not exactly coinciding with the line of the feature. If the line is projected beyond the moated site NHER 1056 it would meet the end of the now-detached portion of Bunns Bank (NHER 9127). Does this solve the mystery of why the Bank ends at this point?
E. Rose (NLA) 5 November 1998.

September-October 2003. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation on route of A11 Attleborough Bypass Improvement Scheme. Single trench placed to investigate the postulated route of this road (Trench 7).
No archaeological significant features or deposits were identified and no finds were recovered.
See NHER 60794 and report (S10) for further details. Previously recorded under NHER 39690.
P. Watkins (HES), 8 June 2015.

May 2012. Norfolk NMP.
The possible Roman road described above is visible on aerial photographs (S1-S9) in two east-west sections, stretching for approximately 540m between TM 0615 9634 and TM 0668 643 and for approximately 625m between TM 0523 9620 and TM 0584 9628. In places it appears to show as a double ditch and bank, although at its eastern end it shows mainly as broad, blurred soilmarks. At the western end, where it is visible as earthworks, it appears to be cut by the possible drainage earthworks recorded as NHER 54747 (S4).
The most westerly section, recorded from TM 0522 9618 to TM 0512 9614, is rather more dubious, since its northern ditch corresponds with a track depicted on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey Map, and the southern ditch is somewhat further south than the rest of the road line. Its relationship with medieval moated sites NHER 57509 and 1056 is certainly of interest, and may indicate a medieval rather than Roman date for the road.
E. Bales (NMP), 15th May 2012.

2014. Earthwork Survey, Geophysical Survey and Desk-based Assessment.
In 2014 the land between the A11 and the Norwich Road was subject to a number of non-intrusive surveys.
A contour survey demonstrated that the line of this possible road survived as a slight linear earthwork. Its line was also detected by earth resistance and magnetometer surveys.
Cartographic research undertaken as part of a subsequent desk-based assessment demonstrated that part of the route of this road was potentially fossilised in the line of a former field boundary depicted on a map of 1812 (S11). A number of other boundaries shown on this map correspond with other cropmark/earthwork features recorded in this field (NHER 54747).
See reports (S12)-(S14) and NHER 4380 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 18 April 2021.

January-February 2015. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of land between A11 and the Norwich Road.
This phase of work saw the excavation of three trenches across the line of this probable road, all of which revealed at least one potentially corresponding ditch but no evidence for actual road surfaces. There was however evidence for an associated bank to the south of these ditches, which was at its most substantial in the westernmost trench. Three samples for Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating were taken from deposits in this trench; two from bank layers and one from the fill of the ditch. The sample from the basal layer of the bank produced a Bronze Age date (7.69 +/- 0.63ka) and the sample from the ditch a medieval date (0.88 +/- 0.08ka). Both of these samples were deemed to be well-bleached (i.e. the majority of grains exposed to light during deposition) and thus likely to be reliable. Unfortunately this was not the case for the sample from the second bank deposit where post-deposition disturbance or incomplete bleaching appeared to have occurred. Whilst the Bronze Age date clearly provides a terminus post quern for the deposition of the bank material it is unclear whether it can be taken as its actual date, particularly as the ditch is actually recorded as cutting this deposit. The medieval date for the lower fill of the ditch potentially represents a more accurate date – particularly as it has been previously noted that the road appears to have run between two medieval moated sites (and there is no clear evidence that it continues beyond them).
See NHER 4380 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 18 April 2021.

Monument Types

• CAUSEWAY (Unknown date)
• ROAD (Unknown date)
• ROAD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• ROAD (Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1539 AD?)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

• SHINE

Sources and further reading

Related records

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Attleborough (Parish Summary)
• Parish Summary: Besthorpe (Parish Summary)