Norfolk - Thetford, Norwich and the A11 corridor NMP

This project is being undertaken as part of a range of projects within Norfolk carried out under the auspices of the National Mapping Programme (NMP). The project covers the historic urban centres of Norwich and Thetford, which are connected by the A11, one of the region’s principal road transport links. As well as significantly enhancing the archaeological record for the area it covers, and making its results available to a wide range of researchers and local interest groups, the project will also feed into the planning system, enabling better-informed decisions to be made regarding the historic environment of a part of Norfolk that faces significant pressure from development.

The project area encompasses several of the county’s most important archaeological sites, including the Roman town of Venta Icenorum at Caistor St Edmund. The work of the NMP has already contributed to the Caistor Roman Town Research Project, run from the University of Nottingham. Other significant sites include Arminghall ‘henge’ and the Iron Age and Roman enclosure complex at Fison Way, Thetford. From the more recent past, the NMP has mapped a World War Two heavy anti aircraft battery on the site of Mousehold Aerodrome, to the northeast of Norwich. This is just one of several such defences that protected the city from aerial attack during the Second World War. The aerial photographs used by the project are also revealing important new discoveries, with previously unknown sites dating to all periods from the Neolithic to World War Two now coming to light.

The project is already facilitating decisions concerning planning and development within the project area. The most extensive of the planned new developments is the Norwich Northern Distributor Route, or NDR. Several archaeological sites have been identified to the east of Norwich, located along the line of the NDR. These include a large, D-shaped enclosure at Great Plumstead, which probably dates to the medieval or post medieval period. Work at Harford Farm, to the south of the city, has augmented our existing knowledge of a site excavated in 1990, prior to the construction of a similar road scheme.

For further details about the Norfolk NMP project, please contact:
Norfolk Landscape Archaeology, Union House, Gressenhall, Dereham, Norfolk, NR20 4DR; tel: 01362 869283; email: sophie.tremlett@norfolk.gov.uk

Further details of these and other archaeological sites in Norfolk can be found on the Norfolk Heritage Explorer website.

For further information on a project or any other aspect of the work of the Aerial Survey team please contact us at: AerialSurvey@english-heritage.org.uk.