Monument record MDO41055 - Possible medieval field boundary, Parks Farm, Leigh, Colehill

Banked and ditched curvilinear features to the northeast of Park Farm are visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The features may be part of a historic field boundary and/or trackway of possible medieval origin. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Banked and ditched curv ilinear features to the northeast of Park Farm are visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1).

The features comprise narrow sinuous linear features on the east side of an accesss road leading south towards Park Farm. The line of these features corresponds with the line of a historic field boundary and leat or water channel recorded on the OS 1st Edition map that runs towards the access road from the west. The hedged boundary on the south side of this channel may fossilise the northern boundary of Leigh Park medieval deer park (See MDO5441). On the east side of the access road to Parks Farm the channel dog legs north then continues east and subsequently south (2). This section of channel looks to be a more recent construction than that to the west.

It may be that the linear features reflect a continuation of the line of the former medieval deer park boundary to the east, possibly in the form of a former field boundary or trackway. The features potentially continue east across later garden plots, where they can be seen as ditched linears in 1946 (1).

The site is still partially open fields on current Google Earth imagery but is predominantly redeveloped land. The features are no longer visible. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4158-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16008.

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

Record last edited

Dec 4 2023 3:00PM