Monument record MDO40753 - Historic cultivation marks, possible medieval ridge and furrow, Leigh Common, Colehill

An area of faint cultivation marks to the northeast of Leigh Common, Colehill, is visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

An area of faint cultivation marks to the northeast of Leigh Common, Colehill, is visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1 and 2 ).

An irregular 133m by 113m area of parallel ridges set around 4.5m apart and interset by 1.5m wide ditches is located on the east side of a large historic enclosure present on the OS 1st Edition map, and possibly extending slightly beyond its eastern boundary. To the west it may also extend beyond another former post medieval field boundary (MDO40748), visible as a ditc hed earthwork on aerial photographs and sub-dividing the enclosure. The features are therefore potentially earlier than the post medieval division of a once larger enclosure of possible medieval origin. They are considered to be historic cultivation marks of possible medieval ridge and furrow, although as the extent of cultivation is poorly defined a later origin is also possible.

The features are possibly those still visible on 2014 Google Earth imagery (3). They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4104-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15911.

<2> Royal Air Force, 17-Jan-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 V 5187-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15927.

<3> Google Earth, 2014, Google Earth 2014 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15450.

Record last edited

Apr 24 2018 10:32AM