Monument record MDO1893 - Lynchets, Piddlehinton

Earthworks of a medieval field system comprising strip lynchets and strip cultivation. Two areas of medieval cultivation are visible as low earthwork on lidar imagery to the west and south of Little Piddle deserted settlement, they were recorded during the Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

('A' SY 720961: 'B' SY 716964) Strip lynchets. <1>

'A' In the north-west of the area is a series of strip lynchets, each aproximately 1.0m metres high, running in a NW-SE direction, parallel and fairly regularly spaced. These lynchets are centred within 60 metres of SY 71899624.

The rest of the area is occupied by a number of very spread and ploughed down field banks which parallel one another up the hillside; i.e. at right angles to the contours. Each bank is approximately 4.0 metres wide and 0.3 metres high; the space between the banks being on average 16.0 metres.
The Medieval type strip lynchets are divorced from the banks, or at least the banks cannot be seen close to the lynchets. Nevertheless the field banks are probably also of Medieval date. 'B' Strip cultivation, low field banks or balks, regularly spaced; an accentuated drop to the north-east is caused by the slope of the hill,giving each one a lynchet-like appearance. Under grass and probably
connected with the nearby DMV. (SY 79 NW 6) <2>

Two areas of medieval cultivation are visible as low earthwork on lidar imagery to the west and south of Little Piddle deserted settlement, they were recorded during the Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <5>

<1> RCHM Mss file (Unpublished document). SWX2467.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 02-DEC-54 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 212 (Monograph). SDO136.

'(14) CULTIVATION REMAINS. The open fields of Piddlehinton remained unenclosed until 1835 (Enclosure Map and Award, D.C.R.O.). On either side of Coombe Bottom (710971) are slight traces of contour strip lynchets, mostly ploughed out and now visible only on air photographs (R.A.F. CPE/UK 1974: 1368). In the E., these strip lynchets run into and over 'Celtic' fields (see below, Group (35), p. 322). Until 1835 all the strips lay in West Water Field.
Contour strip lynchets (714965) of the open fields of Combe Deveral manor lie on the N. side of Little Piddle Bottom, 400 yds. W. of (5). The remains are all ploughed out and are only visible on air photographs (R.A.F. CPE/UK 1974: 1367).
A two-field system was in existence at Little Piddle (formerly in Puddletown parish) in the 13th century (S. & D. N. & Q., IX, (1904–5), 147). Contour strip lynchets remain in two places, S.W. and S. of (5), (716964 and 718962); they are damaged by ploughing but have low risers 1 ft. to 3 ft. high.'

<3.1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 1367 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18504.

<3.2> 1905, Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries 9 (Serial). SDO18505.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 454643 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 21 2024 10:31AM