Monument record HRK 034 - Dawson's Lane

Group of indistinct small ring ditches, circa 10 visible, up to 15-20 metres diameter. Traversed by trackway running N-S (on edge of enclosure, HRK 035) and various linear and miscellaneous cropmarks (S1-S5).
Area includes enclosure HRK 035 and adjoins further enclosure HRK 033 and cropmark complex HRK 003.
A group of small ring ditches are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs, centred on TM 19823370 north of Dawson's Lane, to the south-east of Sparrow Hall in Harkstead parish. At least 7 ring ditches are visible in the group and others could be obscured by the natural soil variations showing as cropmarks in the area. The ring ditches themselves are narrow and each enclose an area of around 7.5m in diameter. The ring ditches appear to be aligned along what is probably the cropmark of a field boundary (see HRK 035), now removed, that is visible on the Ordnance Survey 2nd Edition 25" map of circa 1904 (S6). This relationship appears to be coincidental. (S1-S5) The group of ring ditches can be interpreted in a number of ways. It is possible that the ring ditches represent the eavesdrip gullies or foundation trenches of round houses of prehistoric or Roman date, the remains of a ploughed-out round barrow cemetery of prehistoric, Roman or Saxon date or are features more commonly seen on the silt fens of East Anglia known as stack stands, constructed to keep material such as fodder dry. Stack stands have been suggested to date from the Roman or Medieval and Post Medieval periods (S7). (S8)