Record Details
| NHER Number: | 12805 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Cropmarks of undated ring ditch |
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Summary
An undated ring ditch with an inturned entrance is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs. It has been interpreted as the remains of a Bronze Age barrow, although it could be remnants of a prehistoric/Roman enclosure or round house, a ditch that surrounded a medieval post mill or an undated sheep fold or pound.
Images - none
Location
| Grid Reference: | TG 2977 3698 |
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| Map Sheet: | TG23NE |
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| Parish: | GIMINGHAM, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK |
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Full description
Cropmarks. Circular enclosure with an entrance - a fold? Linear marks and a track.
(S1).
April 2005. Norfolk NMP.
The linear cropmarks and trackway noted above are now recorded as NHER 38933. NMP mapping has led to the alteration of the central grid reference of the site from TG 2979 3690 to TG 2977 3698.
The circular enclosure described above is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S2 to S4). A number of different interpretations of the site are possible, and there is little evidence to indicate which one is correct. It has been classified elsewhere as a ring ditch and the probable site of a Bronze Age round barrow (S5). The possibility, however, that it is a stock enclosure, such as a sheepfold or even a pound, as suggested above, cannot be ruled out. Alternatively, it might be a large round house or domestic enclosure, perhaps associated with the earlier (probably Iron Age to Roman) elements of the multi period field system (NHER 38933) which surrounds it. It might even represent the remains of a medieval postmill, the terminal of the entrance perhaps being formed by the cross of the mill. Similar interpretations might be put forward for a second 'ring' ditch (NHER 39064) 100m to the southeast, although there the possibilities are more restricted due to the distinctive ovoid form of the ditch. Whether the two ring ditches were contemporary, therefore, or were in some way associated with each other remains unknown.
The ring ditch or enclosure is approximately circular in plan and measures up to 19.5m in diameter. It has a distinctive inturned entrance on its south side, which ends in a pit like cropmark which could, for example, represent a burial (in the case of a round barrow) or the base of a postmill.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 11 April 2005.
Monument Types
- CIRCULAR ENCLOSURE (Unknown date)
- POUND? (Unknown date)
- RING DITCH (Unknown date)
- SHEEP FOLD? (Unknown date)
- STOCK ENCLOSURE? (Unknown date)
- RING DITCH (Early Neolithic to Roman - 4000 BC? to 409 AD?)
- ROUND HOUSE (DOMESTIC)? (Early Neolithic to Roman - 4000 BC to 409 AD)
- RING DITCH (Bronze Age - 2350 BC? to 701 BC?)
- ROUND BARROW? (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
- POST MILL? (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
- RING DITCH (Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1539 AD?)
Associated Finds - none
Protected Status
Sources and further reading
| --- | Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card. |
| --- | Unpublished Document: Yardley, C. J. 2011. The Mun Valley: Historic landscape Assessment and Landscape Character Assessment for Norfolk Coast Project. p 15. |
| <S1> | Aerial Photograph: TG 2930B, TG 3036A. |
| <S2> | Oblique Aerial Photograph: CUCAP. 1976. CUCAP (BYY35) 29-JUN-1976. |
| <S3> | Oblique Aerial Photograph: Edwards, D.A. (NLA). 1976. NHER TG 2936B (NLA 28/AFH22) 01-JUL-1976. |
| <S4> | Vertical Aerial Photograph: Ordnance Survey. 1981. OS/81081 147-8 17-AUG-1981 (NMR). |
| <S5> | Monograph: Lawson, A. J., Martin, E., Priddy, D. and Taylor, A. 1981. The Barrows of East Anglia. East Anglian Archaeology. No 12. p 35. |
Related records - none
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