Scheduled Ancient Monument: EARTHWORK IN CROMWELL'S PLANTATION (SF149)

Circular earthwork in Cromwell's Plantation. Shown as an irregular, roughly circular enclosure, bisected by the Finningham - Gislingham parish boundary, on the 1804 enclosure map of the Finningham part of Allwood Green. Named as Fapes Hill (local dialect word - fapes mean gooseberry/ ies) and land allotted to John Frere Esq of Roydon (S1). Recorded as `Plantation' in the ownership of Rt Hon John Hookham Frere 1839 (S2). Marked on Ordnance Survey 1st edition 1:2500 map, 1886, as `Intrenchment'; name `Cromwells Plantation' occurs on 2nd ed map of 1904. 1935-8 Small scale excavatin by Basil Brown and Kenneth Landymore on a `slight depression' in the centre revealed a hearth with sandy pottery initially thought to be Iron Age but later, apparently on the advice of G Dunning, redated as early medieval/12th century. Findings sometimes referred to as `hut circle'. Brown recorded the moat as 12ft wide, the earthwork 13-15ft high (S3). 1971: Circular enclosure, 100ft internal diameter, bank 30ft wide, 5ft high above the interior, 8ft above the 12ft wide partially wet ditch (S4). 1973: Very slight external bank on W. On W side ditch 2.7m deep from the top of the bank, bank 1.7m high from interior; on the E side the ditch is 2.3m deep from the top of the bank, bank 1.3m high from the interior (S5). 1981: Interior covered with trees and undergrowth, some dead trees, moat wet (S1). 1986: Moat wet but much-silted and full of dead, fallen trees. A shallow lobe has been dug outwards from it in the SE (recently, since the heap of soil NE of it is only lightly overgrown with weeds). Causeway mapped by OS in NW is slight and soggy. It corresponds to a gap in the bank. Bank and interior are more densely wooded than surrounding plantation; mainly mature oak, with younger ash, hawthorn and elder and an undergrowth of nettles and brambles. A few fallen trees have left holes in the surface of the momument (S1). 1991: Oak standards removed from E end of Plantation, so far no harm to earthwork (S6). Compare to Burnthall Plantation, Fakenham, FKM 005 and Creeting St Peter,CRP 001. See also Stoland Abbey (FNN 009).