Monument record MDO2842 - West Compton: medieval field system

A medieval field system comprising parallel strip lynchets, strip field boundaries and ridge and furrow cultivation marks, visible as earthworks on aerial photographs.

(Area centred at SY 56489438: A; Area centred at SY 56609445: B; Area centred at SY56649471:e.] A series of Md. strip lynchets set N-S or E-W according to the contours. The lynchets are fairly regularly spaced and parallel.

Both the above, A & B, are grass covered, the lynchets being from 0.5 to 1.5m. high. C: Four or five strip lynchets set in an EW direction are visible with the other series on AP. CPE/UK/2431/4149, but these are not definable on the ground, which is grass covered. <2>

Earthworks of an extensive medieval field system comprising parallel strip lynchets, strip field boundaries and ridge and furrow cultivation marks, visible on aerial photographs to the north and west of West Compton. <3-5>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 100 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(9) LYNCHETS, on a W. slope 300 yards E. of the church, consist of two and three terraces divided into two sections by a cross-dyke; they extend for about 350 yards.'

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F2 NVQ 23-MAY-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 410-1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11078.

<4> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4150-1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11077.

<5> 02-APR-1969, NMR OS/69053 032-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11076.

<6> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450970 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 2 2023 5:14PM