Monument record MDO40853 - Post medieval drainage system, Pamphill

A series of linear banks and ditches in fields to the west of Clapgate are visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The features are presumed to be a post medieval drainage system. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A series of linear banks and ditches in fields to the west of Clapgate 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 (2). The linear ditches feed into drainage channels that are also recorded on the OS 1st Edition map, some of which may dually function as field boundaries. These channels are likely to be post medieval in date but their curvilinear form may indicate an earlier origin; or they may have been constructed to respect or conform to earlier boundary lines.

The features are presumed to be part of an extensive post medieval drainage system bordering the River Allan.

The site is still open fields on current Google Earth imagery and many of the features are still clearly visible. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 11-JUN-47, RAF/CPE/UK/2150 V 3144-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15958.

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

Record last edited

May 3 2018 9:22AM