Monument record MDO40852 - Probable post medieval water meadow, Wilksworth Farm, Colehill

A series of ditched and banked linear features in fields to the west of Wilksworth Farm are visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The features are presumed to post medieval drainage features, possibly a designed post medieval water meadow. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A series of ditched and banked linear features in fields to the west of Wilksworth Farm are visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1).

The features comprise narrow rectilinear banks and ditches extending the length and breadth of a number of irregular historic enclosures recorded on the OS 1st Edition map and whose boundaries are probably medieval in origin (2). These enclosures are sub-divided by a series of rectilinear and curvilinear drainage channels, most of which are present on the OS 1st Edition map but with some additions since the c1880s when the map was produced (1 and 2). The rectilinear banks and ditches run off these channels at regular intervals to form an extensive system of drainage and/or irrigation. The features clearly form a designed drainage system, probably a post medieval water meadow. Some of the drainage channels may have had dual function as field boundaries.

The site is still open fields on current Google Earth imagery. The main drainage channels are still clearly visible although the shorter linear drainage ditches are less evident. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RP 3155-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15957.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

May 2 2018 2:36PM