Monument record MDO166 - Medieval strip lynchets on White Sheet Hill, Beaminster

A group of parallel terraces, called strip lynchets. These earthworks are the remains of a field system arranged in strips, and are probably of medieval date. They form part of a wider system of medieval strip fields and were digitally plotted from lidar imagery and aerial photographs during the Marshwood Vale NMP.

Lynchets on the W and SE slopes of White Sheet Hill and extending some distance to the east, form a number of groups of which those on White Sheet Hill are the best defined. <1>

Six areas of medieval type strip lynchets centred ST 4902, all under grass, and visible on air photographs. … D. ST 49500213 Approximately parallel but widely separated strips,
fairly well pronounced. <2>

A series of medieval strip lynchets are visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and aerial photographs on the south-eastern slopes of White Sheet Hill, to the south east of Cambrian House <3-4>. They form part of a wider system of medieval strip fields and were digitally plotted during the Marshwood Vale NMP.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 27 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(68) LYNCHETS, on the W. and S.E. slopes of White Sheet Hill 1¼ m. N.E. of the church and extending some distance to the E., form a number of groups of which those on White Sheet Hill are the best defined.'

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<2.1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1975 1087-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO14540.

<3> Environment Agency, 2010, Lidar DTM, st4902_dtm_1m.asc (Aerial Photograph). SDO13148.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 08-MAY-1996, OS OS/96569 134-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO14511.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 193049 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 14 2022 4:03PM