Monument record MDO41464 - Possible medieval ridge and furrow, Corfe Mullen

Areas of possible ridged and ditched cultivation to the southwest of Corfe Mullen are visible on aerial photographs. The cultivation marks may be those of medieval ridge and furrow. Alternatively the features may be post medieval drainage ditches. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Areas of possible ridged and ditched cultivation to the southwest of Corfe Mullen are visible on aerial photographs (1).

The features comprise broadly parallel ridges set between 8m and 10m apart with 2m wide ditches in between. The areas of possible cultivation broadly respect historic field boundaries, either still extant or visible as earthworks and cropmarks (MDO41462), although the westernmost of the two areas potentially overlies historic field boundaries (MDO41461), which may be medieval (or earlier?) in origin.

The form and spacing of the features suggests they may be medieval ridge and furrow. Alternatively, however, and given the possible relationship to the historic pattern of enclosure, they may be post medieval drainage ditches.

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

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RP 3247-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16145.

Record last edited

Aug 24 2018 9:17AM