Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

June 2005. Norfolk NMP.
Cropmarks of a trackway, enclosures and ditches of possible Bronze Age, Iron Age or Roman date are visible on aerial photographs (S1). These cropmarks are centred on TG 5116 1381 and lie at 10m OD on a gentle east-facing slope.
A ditch defined trackway extends intermittently for at least 300m on a northwest to southeast alignment between TG 5103 1396 and TG 5127 1379. The trackway is up to 15m wide. The ditch on its northeast side curves towards the east at the southeast end and continues for a further 95m. It is not clear from the visible cropmarks whether the trackway also continues in this direction or whether the ditch is an associated boundary.
Two ditches that are aligned roughly parallel to, and may be contemporary with, the trackway lie 50m to its northeast. These extend either side of the double ring ditch cropmark of a Bronze Age round barrow (NHER 18151). It is likely that these are field boundaries that utilised the then extant round barrow as a marker.
Several ditches to the southeast of the trackway lie on a parallel or perpendicular alignment to it. Among these is a southwest to northeast aligned ditch which joins the southeastern end of the trackway. This appears to form the end of an incomplete field adjacent to the trackway that measures 64m by at least 75m in size. The trackway and its associated fields are likely to represent part of a larger field system of possible Iron Age to Roman date.
The ditches of the field system attached to the trackway appear to overlap with a rectilinear enclosure at TG 5121 1376. This enclosure measures up to 54m long by 26m wide. It has rounded northern corners and angular southern corners. Its southeastern side is formed by a curvilinear ditch that extends for a further 170m to the southeast. Enclosures of this type have elsewhere been identified as being of possible Bronze Age or Iron Age to Roman date.
To the southwest of the rectilinear enclosure is a roughly triangular curvilinear enclosure centred on TG 5114 1375. This enclosure measures up to 28m by 25m with no obvious entrances. A single ditch leading from one of the sides appears to represent an internal division. A possible incomplete polygonal enclosure, measuring 17m by at least 13m is present 10m further to the north. The date of these enclosures is not certain, but could also be late prehistoric.
The line of the Caister bypass now cuts across the rectilinear enclosure and a section across the trackway cropmarks. No associated artefacts were recovered from this section of the bypass during its construction.
J. Albone (NMP), 15 June 2005.

December 2008-January 2009. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with installation of Anglian Water pipeline.
An east-to-west aligned ditch was recorded close to the point where the pipeline crossed the sinuous east-north-east to west-south-west aligned cropmark running between TG 5101 1371 and TG51181374. This potentially related feature was only visible once the subsoil had been removed and produced six Iron Age pottery sherds and a single Roman sherd.
See report (S3) and NHER 52659 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 April 2021.

Monument Types

• DITCH (Unknown date)
• ENCLOSURE (Unknown date)
• TRACKWAY (Unknown date)
• BOUNDARY DITCH (Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 2350 BC to 42 AD)
• POLYGONAL ENCLOSURE (Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 2350 BC to 42 AD)
• RECTILINEAR ENCLOSURE (Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 2350 BC to 42 AD)
• DITCH (Early Iron Age to Roman - 800 BC to 409 AD)
• FIELD (Early Iron Age to Roman - 800 BC to 409 AD)
• TRACKWAY (Early Iron Age to Roman - 800 BC to 409 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

• SHINE

Sources and further reading

Related records - none

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Ormesby St Margaret with Scratby (Parish Summary)