Monument record MDO40785 - Post medieval drainage system, Cannon Hill,, Colehill

A series of narrow rectilinear ditched features on Cannon Hill, Colehill, are visible on aerial photographs. The features are presumed to be part of a post medieval drainage system. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A series of narrow rectilinear ditched features on Cannon Hill, Colehill, are visible on aerial photographs (1 and 2).

The features are divided into two groups or narrow rectilinear ditches which are closely interlinked in a regular arrangement of perpendicular and diagonal rows. The weasternmost group has greater spacing between features, forming a series of irregular enclosures. The features are presumed to be part of a post medieval drainage system. They appear to be associated with further ditched linears (MDO40786) to the north, which may also be drainage features but may alternatively be historic field boundaries, also of probable post medieval date. In addition these features link with further similar features recorded on the OS 1st Edition map, which again may be part of a wider drainage system of channels and ditches on the wider heath here but which also have functioned as agricultural or horticultural boundaries (3).

The featurs are under trees on current Google Earth imagery and not visible. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4106-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15935.

<2> Royal Air Force, 17-APR-51, RAF/58/629 V 5185-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15940.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

Apr 27 2018 10:02AM