Monument record MDO24130 - Strip lynchets, Pitcombe Down, Littlebredy

Three series of lynchets are on the south and west slopes of a hill 1/4 mile north-west of Littlebredy. <1>

Centred at 'A' - SY 582897; ('B' - SY 587897; 'C' - SY 585894; 'D' - SY 59078926; 'E' - SY 58828918. Five areas of medieval type strip lynchets. 'A' is partly cultivated, and is an area with parallel lynchets dividing field strips. The other series are of grass and tree covered lynchets parallel and regularly spaced. Visible on air photographs RAF CPE/UK/1824 4283-4. <2>

Medieval strip lynchets are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs on Pitcombe Down <4-7>. They form part of a wider medieval field system (MDO1403 and 1405) which may have earlier prehistoric origins. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 39 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(16) Lynchets, on the S. and W. slopes of a hill ¼ m. N.W. of the church, form three series:— (a) on a W. slope and about 220 yards long; (b) on a W. slope to the S.E. of (a) and also about 220 yards along; (c) on a S. slope, N. of (b), and about 200 yards long.'

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 31-MAR-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1967 (Map). SWX1540.

<4> 16-FEB-2005, NMR SY 4889/7 (23811/21) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11706.

<5> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 5099-100 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11149.

<6> 02-APR-1969, NMR OS/69053/002-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11139.

<7> 20-JUL-1989, NMR OS/89389/112-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11660.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450411 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 27 2025 1:57PM