Monument record MDO4003 - Strip Lynchets, Ibberton

In Coombe Bottom 801071 and 804071, at least five fragmentary contour strip lynchets lie within an area which, to judge by the shape of the existing boundaries, was once an open field. N. and N.W. of these, on the steep hill-side, 803074, are very slight contour strip lynchets with low risers, apparently outside the permanent open fields. Contour aligned lynchets in Coombe Down and fragments of probable lynchets/field boundaries on the steeper slopes of Ibberton Long Down to the north are visible as banked earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery. The features were digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

(Centred ST 802072) In Coombe Bottom 801071 and 804071, at least five fragmentary contour strip lynchets lie within an area which, to judge by the shape of the existing boundaries, was once an open field. N. and N.W. of these, on the steep hill-side, 803074, are very slight contour strip lynchets with low risers, apparently outside the permanent open fields. <1-2>

Contour aligned lynchets in Coombe Down and fragments of probable lynchets/field boundaries on the steeper slopes of Ibberton Long Down to the north of these are visible as banked earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery (RAF 1947; EA 2018). Although the features on Ibberton Long Down lie beyond the historic field pattern visible in 1947, the OS 1st Edition 25 inch map (OS c1880) suggests the fields once continued up onto the slopes of Ibberton Long Down to some degree - one of the banked linear features visible as a low earthwork in 1947 potentially corresponds with one of these now lost field boundaries. In places the lynchets might overlie earlier field boundries of potentially later prehistoric date (recorded under MDO50011). The features were digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 205606 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch 1 (Map). SDO10239.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch 1 (Map). SDO10239.

Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FP 1174 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21626.

Environment Agency, xx-xxx-2018, Environment Agency National Lidar Programme DTM 1M (Aerial Photograph). SDO21483.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 125 (Monograph). SDO146.

<2> Royal Air Force, 11 APR 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 1174-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17765.

Record last edited

Jan 5 2026 12:48PM