Monument record MDO242 - Medieval strip field system at Lower Bincombe Farm, Bincombe

(Centred at SY 68528377) Traces of Medieval strip cultivation forming slight terraces at a large angle with the contours. <1>

Well pronounced terrace cultivation situated on a western slope. The terraces, up to 1.0m high, run almost at right angles to the contours. Under grass. <2>

SY 686835. Strip lynchets and traces, in the former South Field, are shown on plan. Around SY 687834 a block of strip lynchets run in a shallow 'S' curve, probably due to the contours, up to the former parish boundary and must have been contiguous with those mentioned above. Widths of treads vary from 5 to 9 yds and riser heights from 3 to 18 ft. <3>

Strip lynchets centred at SY 68528377 and SY 68708345. Though ploughed and rounded, they remain prominent features. <4>

An extensive medieval strip field system with associated ridge and furrow is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and LiDAR imagery <5-7>. The features form part of a wider medieval landscape of field boundaries and contour lynchets. They were digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, RCHME Ms file (Unpublished document). SDO19490.

<2> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 30-DEC-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<2.1> Royal Air Force, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3332 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20046.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 1, 23-24 (Monograph). SDO148.

‘(11) STRIP FIELDS (Figs. pp. 24, 484; Plates 70, 72, 216). Remains of strip cultivation in Bincombe and Sutton Poyntz are widespread; in outlying places this cultivation may have altered earlier field patterns (e.g. on Bincombe Hill, see Ancient Field Group (8)). Much has been destroyed by quarrying but the present obvious remains are complemented by slight traces visible on air photographs or from the ground. The position of outcropping rock in risers suggests that some of the strip lynchets were deliberately constructed for at least part of their length. Treads generally slope downwards in cross section, with interesting exceptions in Coombe Bottom furlong, and their ends are ramped, 'drawnout' or quarter-round. The open fields of Bincombe were finally enclosed in 1827 when South Field lay S. of the village, Middle Field was immediately S. of Bincombe Down and North Field lay just N. of Bincombe Hill. Faint traces of strip-field remains in the former Middle and North Fields are visible on air photographs. Almost all the strip fields remaining were cultivated at least into the 19th century but are now mostly in pasture. (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1821: 4453, 6445–7; Enclosure Maps of Preston and Sutton Poyntz, 1794, and of Bincombe, 1827, in D.C.R.O., show furlong names (see plan p. 24).
(a) Strip lynchets of the former Bincombe parish cover some 60 acres S.W. and S.E. of Lower Bincombe Farm (around 675850) and S.E. of the village (around 688840 and 686835; Plate 70). In the former South Field two blocks make a butt junction at right angles and a series curves S.E. to the line of the former parish boundary with Preston and Sutton Poyntz, which in 1794 ran in zigzags. At 68848400 an isolated strip lynchet curves uphill and E. as if to avoid a hollow, probably an ancient quarry. Widths of treads vary from 4 yds. to 18 yds. and riser heights from 3 ft. to 16 ft. Limestone is seen outcropping in the faces of some risers (cf. on Green Hill, below). Many treads are overlaid with narrow rig. A mound (75) has been trimmed by strip cultivation S.E. of Lower Bincombe Farm.’

<4> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F2 JGB 04-SEP-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<5> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3241-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11970.

<6> 2006, LiDAR D0059946 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11969.

<7> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4299-300 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11961.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452717 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 8 2023 5:14PM