Record Details

NHER Number:49362
Type of record:Monument
Name:Cropmarks of probable field system of possible Bronze Age or early Iron Age date

Summary

Probable field boundaries, perhaps of early Iron Age or even Bronze Age date, are visible as fragmentary cropmarks on aerial photographs. The cropmark ditches seem to define a broadly rectilinear arrangement of fields, oriented northeast to southwest, and northwest to southeast. This is at odds with not only the modern pattern of land division, but also an extensive field system (NHER 49360) for which a Roman to post medieval date is suggested. Their orientation is closer to that of a farmstead or enclosure complex of possible Iron Age to Roman date (NHER 49361) visible immediately to the southwest, but the slight variation between the two means that the relative chronology could point to an earlier – early Iron Age or even Bronze Age – date for the cropmarks recorded here.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TG 3047 2304
Map Sheet:TG32SW
Parish:TUNSTEAD, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

April 2007. Norfolk NMP.
Fragmentary cropmarks of ditches are visible on aerial photographs (S1)-(S4), centred at TG 3048 2308. They probably represent the remains of field boundaries whose orientation is at odds with, and which presumably pre-date, both the modern pattern of land division and also an extensive field system (NHER 49360) for which a Roman to post medieval date is suggested. Their orientation is also slightly different to that of a farmstead or enclosure complex of possible Iron Age to Roman date (NHER 49361) visible immediately to the southwest. Collectively, the three cropmark sites could represent three phases of land division within the later Iron Age and Roman periods or, more probably, the cropmarks described here represent features of earlier Iron Age or even Bronze Age date.
S. Tremlett (NMP), 30 April 2007.

Monument Types

  • FIELD BOUNDARY (Unknown date)
  • FIELD BOUNDARY (Early Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 2350 BC? to 42 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

<S1>Vertical Aerial Photograph: RAF. 1946. RAF 106G/UK/1634 4083-4 09-JUL-1946 (NHER TG 3022B, TG 3122B).
<S2>Vertical Aerial Photograph: RAF. 1963. RAF 543/2331 (F21) 0056-7 25-JUL-1963 (NMR).
<S3>Vertical Aerial Photograph: Meridian Airmaps Limited. 1976. MAL 76053 104, 106 29-JUN-1976 (NMR).
<S4>Vertical Aerial Photograph: BKS. 1988. BKS 2072 29-AUG-1988 (NCC 4289).

Related records - none

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