Physical Character
The lane leaves Somerton Road at TG466193. It is about nine feet wide. The east side of the lane is the Martham Parish Boundary with Somerton. At the beginning it has a line of mature trees – oak and ash and wild flowers - scabious, yarrow and knapweed on the east side and a lower hedge of similar plants on the west side. The lane then becomes more open because the hedges have been removed. It continues in a very straight line. Eventually an electricity pole is reached with the information TG4705 1850 1885.
As the lane nears Hemsby Road it measures about 16 feet wide. There are hedges each side which have at one time been carefully layered. On the east side are hawthorn, sloe, elm, ivy, and privet. On the west side the land is about six feet below the track. The west hedge includes elm, hawthorn, ash, ivy, and elder. Tansy and bracken were growing in the banks.
Historical Ecology
The name ‘Mill Lane’ is puzzling because there does not seem to have been a mill in the vicinity. Perhaps Somerton did not have a mill and therefore their corn was taken to Martham Mill via this route. This lane was the Private Road No.1 on the Enclosure Map of 1812. Just to the east of where the track reaches Hemsby Road was the site of a gibbet.
