Monument record MDO350 - Strip lynchets at Walditch, Bothenhampton

Medieval strip lynchets at Walditch, Bothenhampton. They are clearly visible as earthworks on a lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Marshwood Vale NMP.

Centred at SY 4785 9279 a field system of Md strip lynchets. At A - SY 48009290 the almost vertical banks are approx 6.0m high and are heavily overgrown by bushes. They are still being accentuated by continued cultivation though the intervening strips are now almost level. Two sets of parallel lynchets - one of two and one of three lynchets - as shown on OS 6" 1928-38. See GP. At B - SY 47879277 A series of parallel NW-SE strip lynchets. Average height 2.0m. Under orchard trees. At C - SY 47629276 - pronounced strip lynchets though not as well developed as area A or B. under pasture. <2>

The strip lynchets are clearly visible as earthworks on a lidar imagery running for 830m along the northern slopes from Walditch to Crock Land. They were digitally plotted during the Marshwood Vale NMP <3>.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 450173 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 30 (Monograph). SDO97.

'The following lynchets (16 and 17) no doubt form part of the former field-systems of their respective villages. (16) LYNCHETS (Plate 70), to the E., W. and S. of Walditch village, form ten groups as follows: (a) on an E. slope about 650 yards E.S.E. of the church, a series now about 200 yards long but formerly extending another 200 yards to the S.; the terraces are 10 to 12 yards wide; (b) traces of a series on a W. slope, S.E. of (a); (c) series of four terraces on a N.E. slope, 100 yards W. of (a), about 10 to 15 yards wide; (d) series of terraces imediately N. of (c) and forming a right-angled bend facing the E. and N.; (e) irregular terraces to the S.W. of (d); (f) series facing N.E., about 250 yards long and 300 yards S.W. of (d); (g) series facing N.W., 600 yards N.W. of the church and about 250 yards long; (h) series facing N.E. and at right angles to (g); (i) three terraces facing S.W. and on the opposite side of the re-entrant to (h); (j) three or four terraces facing N. adjoining and nearly at right angles to (i).'

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 25-SEP-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3> Environment Agency, 2010, Lidar DTM, sy4892nw_dtm_50cm.asc and sy472ne_dtm_50cm.asc (Aerial Photograph). SDO13148.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 3:42PM