Monument record MDO2034 - Medieval strip lynchets, Portesham Withy Bed

An extensive system of Medieval strip lynchets overlying a prehistoric field system, visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project. {1-2}

'(32) Strip Fields, including contour and up-and-down types of strip lynchets, cover 88 acres W.N.W., N.E., and E. of Portesham village. Of six groups of remains the first three are clearly connected with Portesham itself. (d) and (e) may have belonged to West Waddon and (f) certainly belonged to Little Waddon. All except group (a), partly on the chalk, are on Jurassic limestone. Treads are up to 350 yds. long and 2 yds. to 10 yds. wide, and risers up to 8 ft. high. (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1934 : 1063-72) … (a) In and around Portesham Withy Bed (593859) traces of contour strip lynchets (Plates 140, 233) cover about 16 acres. One block runs W. into the parish boundary with Abbotsbury, unchanged at least since 1758, and probably crossed the line.' (3)

<1> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3289-90 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11670.

<2> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1071-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11629.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 246 (Monograph). SDO149.

Record last edited

Oct 29 2024 1:12PM