Monument record MDO1628 - Medieval strip lynchets, Mapperton

A series of parallel lynchets are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery on the northern slopes of Jack's Hill (2-3). They are considered to be of medieval origin and were digitally plotted during the Marshwood Vale NMP.

('A' - SY 499986; 'B' - SY 495990) Strip lynchets plotted from air photographs. <1>

Lynchets form groups of terraces on a south slope 1100 yards SSW of Mapperton church (A), and on a west slope 1200 yards SW of Mapperton church (B). <2>

(A) Centred SY 49949870. An area of pronounced grass-covered medieval type strip lynchets, approximately parallel and in two series on a steep hill falling to the south. Partly tree-covered in the east.

(B) Centred SY 49529899. Two sets of approximately parallel strip lynchets up to 3.0 metres high, set on a western slope and grass-covered.

Boundaries to both areas were supplied by field survey, and they are unlikely ever to have extended further. <3>

(B) Lynchets (NR) (Lynchets at 'A' are shown but not described on OS 6" 1968 and OS 1:10 000 1976). <4>


A series of parallel lynchets are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery on the northern slopes of Jack's Hill <6-7>. They are considered to be of medieval origin and were digitally plotted during the Marshwood Vale NMP.

<1> Atkinson, R J C, Annotated record map 1 to 6 inch scale, 1949 (Map). SDO18356.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 156 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(8) LYNCHETS form five groups of terraces in the S. part of the parish as follows: ... (e) on a W. slope 1,200 yards S.W. of the church.’

<3> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 26-APR-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 05-MAR-2000, OS/00978 001-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO14303.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1968 (Map). SWX1540.

<5> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<6> Environment Agency, 2010, Lidar DTM, sy4999se_dtm_50cm.asc and sy4998ne_dtm_50cm.asc (Aerial Photograph). SDO13148.

<7> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 3397-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO14304.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 449964 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 14 2022 7:15PM