Harpley Common

I don’t really associate Norfolk with all things MA so being in the area decided to come and see Harpley Common. Looking at the OS map there is a cluster of Bronze Age tumuli, it’s a good spot in the landscape and the barrows would have been a prominent feature.
We started off trying to find the most northerly barrow (TF755288) as described on the MA listing which is just north of the parking spot on Peddars Way. The field where this is looks like it has been set aside and was full of bracken and hawthorn bushes; in September there was no easy sighting of the barrow.
Heading south you can easily see a fine barrow at TF759283. No obvious access into the field but easily viewed from Peddars Way and the road.
Norfolk Council had erected a good information board which had a link to a circular walk norfolk.gov.uk/media/19208/Houghton-Walking-Route/pdf/1ohoughton-walking-route.pdf?m=1701471760037 which seems to go close to a couple of the other barrow.

This was not a ‘planned’ visit – I was on the way, with friends, to nearby Houghton Hall, and our sat nav went wayward.
But hey! We ended up at Anmer, and I was aware that there was a long barrow, and a barrow cemetery in the vicinity. As luck would have it, we drove past Harpley Common, where a couple of barrows sit perfectly at the side of the road, just off the Peddars Way.
I stopped, while my wife took a quick pic out of the car window (true amateurs!) – apologies for it’s unglamorous back-drop of pigs....

Anyway, further investigation about the area has made me determined to do it some justice, and explore a wee bit more thoroughly.

Some pretty substantial round barrows to the south east of Anmer – in the vicinity of the Peddars Way.

Well worth a visit if you happen to be in the area, I’d have thought.

Visited 2/4/06.