Monument record MDO2336 - Medieval field system, Sandford Orcas

At ST 610200 there are strip lynchets or strips covering 6 acres of gently sloping, north facing ploughed land. (2)

Broad rig and furrow covers the area but no strip lynchets exist. (3)

In 1947 a modern draingage system is visible centred at ST 61402025, with broadly east-west aligned ditches projecting from a central axial ditch, running north-south. North-south aligned parallel drainage ditches are visbiel to the south of this, with ditches on this alignment continuing into the field centred ST 61252010. This section of the drainage system appears to overly and potentially utilise earlier earthworks, probably medieval ridge and furrow. An aditional area of east-west aligned ridge and furrow is visible centred on ST 6145 2015, with an area of north-south aligned earthworks southwest of this, adjacent to the road. None of these earthworks appear to survive and are they not visible in LiDAR imagery. <5, 6>

Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 199892 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 3142-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17986.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, RCHM Ms File (unpublished revision of Dorset 1), 23.9.76 (Unpublished document). SDO17382.

<3> Phillips, A S, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator's Comments ASP, F1 ASP 28-NOV-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<4> Historic England, Historic England Archive, RCH01/088 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision. A collection of archive relating to the Dorset inventory Volume I (West Dorset) and to a proposed revision which was never published. The archive consists of a wide range of material including original field notes, surveys, profiles, photographs and negatives, measured drawings, and correspondence.

<5> Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 1142 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21840.

<6> Environment Agency, 2022, LiDAR Composite Viewer - Digital Terrain Model 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO21777.

Record last edited

Aug 13 2026 12:34PM