Monument record MDO40845 - Medieval field boundary or boundary bank, Burt's Hill, Colehill

A substantial banked curvilinear feature in fields on the north side of Burt's Hill, Colehill, is visible on 1940s aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery. The southern section of this feature may be preserved in the curving line of a historic field boundary recorded on the OS 1st Edition map. The feature may also be a field boundary of possible medieval date, although alternatively it may be another type of boundary bank, perhaps part of a manorial boundary associated with the Domesday manor of Walford or marking the extent of an area of medieval open field. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

wide bank around 7.5m wide and anA substantial banked curvilinear feature in fields on the north side of Burt's Hill, Colehill, is visible on 1940s aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery (1 and 2).

The northern section of the feature is a 7.5m wide bank aligned northwest to southeast with an angled turn to the west at its north end. This section does not appear to correspond with any of the adjacent historic field boundaries recorded on the OS 1st Edition map, whose origins are likely to be predominantly medieval in date. The feature may continue to the southeast, curving round to the south and southwest as a low scarp which is fossilised in the curving line of a historic field boundary recorded on the OS 1st Edition map (3). Together the bank and scarped feature encloses a teardrop-shaped area of land between Dogdean and Burts Hill, with Walford Farm at its southwest corner; Walford is recorded as a Domesday settlement and manor.

The feature may be a field boundary of possible medieval date, although alternatively it may be another type of boundary, perhaps part of a manorial or territorial boundary associated with Walford and/or perhaps marking the extent of an area of medieval open field. This would potentially make it early medieval in origin.

The site is still partially open fields and partially part of the modern-day Walfor Farm (now at a differnet location) on current Google Earth imagery. The feature remains partially visible, particularly its northern extent, which is clear on 2012 Google Earth imagery and well preserved on current Lidar imagery (2 and 4). The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/uk/1893 RS 4103-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15900.

<2> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 50cm (Aerial Photograph). SDO15306.

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

<4> Google Earth, 01-JUN-2012, Google Earth 2012 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12633.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 5:01PM