Monument record MDO42958 - Medieval field system, Eastfield Hill, Sydling St Nicholas

The banks and scarps of medieval lynchets and field boundaries associated with a medieval field system are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and on current Lidar imagery on the northwest side of Eastfield Hill, Sydling St Nicholas. Faint traces of possible ridge and furrow cultivation are also visible between some of the lynchets on current Lidar imagery. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

Lynchets, situated 400 yds east of Sydling St Nicholas form two systems at right angles to one another, on a west and south-west slope. <1>

Centred SY 637995. Well-preserved Medieval-type strip lynchets as described by Authy 1. The east-west group follow the contour but the north-south group run at an angle to the contour. <2>

Lynchets are visible around the steep hill slope and extending north for 7ha. as shown on the APs. Most are undamaged and stand to a height of 1.5m. <3>

Centred SY 63739959. Approximately 4.5 ha of well preserved lynchets on the N, W and S sides of a short chalk ridge 400m E of Sydling St Nicholas.

The lynchets on the N and S sides are contour following and survive to a maximum height of 1.5m. The W strips lie at right angles and are generally slighter, mostly measuring 0.3m to 0.5m high though the S sections rise to 1.3m. Surveyed at 1:2500 and penned to MSD (copy attached). <4>

The banks and scarps of medieval lynchets and field boundaries associated with a medieval field system are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <5-6> and on current Lidar imagery <7> on the northwest side of Eastfield Hill, Sydling St Nicholas (1-3). Faint traces of possible ridge and furrow cultivation are also visible between some of the lynchets on current Lidar imagery. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 236 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(36) LYNCHETS, 400 yards E. of the village, form two systems at right angles to one another. They form terraces on a W. and N.W. slope.’

<2> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 02-FEB-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<3> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F2 NJA 24-FEB-81 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<3.1> Ordnance Survey, 15.9.79, OS 79/124 308-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19984.

<4> Probert, S A J, Ordnance Survey field investigator's comments SAJP, SAJP 21-OCT-1991 (Unpublished document). SDO19870.

<5> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1794 RP 3377-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16888.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 15-SEPT-79, OS79124/310 V (Aerial Photograph). SDO16885.

<7> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2019, LIDAR Environment Agency Composite LAST RETURN (Photograph). SDO16524.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453112 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 21 2023 3:10PM