Monument record MDO29215 - Field system of probable medieval date, Eastington Farm, Worth Matravers

An extensive series of field banks and ditches are visible as low earthworks on lidar to the south of Eastington Farm. They are considered likely to be the fragmented remains of a medieval field system.

SY 982776, SY 983772. Medieval strip lynchets, much damaged covered in narrow rig and crossed by a dry-stone wall, lie on the west-facing slope above Seacombe Bottom, south and south west of Eastington Farm. Above them on the spur top are further very faint traces of strip fields and remains of others lie 700 yardssouth of the farm.

(SY 985777). From a point 60 yards south east of the settlement at Eastington Farm (see SY 97 NE 54) are three broad sloping terraces dropping to the combe floor with scarps some 9-16ft high; they are now under pasture but have probably been developed by cultivation and other usage on natural shelves. On the middle terrace lie three 'pillow mounds' (see SY 97 NE 55) and a roughly rectangular platform about 18ft x 7ft; immediately below in rather marshy ground are traces of two adjoining rectangular enclosures measuring about 54ft x 48ft and 30ft x 18ft (see plan with SY 97 NE 14). <1>

No change: these features, 60-120 m OD, lie in permanent pasture on land recently aquired by the National Trust. <2>




An extensive series of field banks and ditches are visible as low earthworks on lidar to the south of Eastington Farm. (1-2). They are considered likely to be the remains of a medieval field system. The site was digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 415 (Monograph). SDO149.

<2> Wardale, C F, Various, Field Investigators Comments CFW, F1 CFW 24-JAN-86 (Unpublished document). SWX2704.

<3> Channel Coastal Observatory, 23-MAR-2008, Lidar (Photograph). SDO12878.

<4> Channel Coastal Observatory, 25-FEB-2009, Lidar (Aerial Photograph). SDO12879.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456487 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 10 2024 9:55AM