Monument record MDO43030 - Possible medieval lynchets, Great Head, Batcombe

Banked and ditched curvilinear features are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs on the west side of Great Head, Batcombe. The features may be lynchets or field boundaries, possibly of medieval date, although an earlier origin for some features is possible. They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

Banked and ditched curvilinear features are visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs on the west side of Great Head, Batcombe (1-3). The features comprise sections of broad curvilinear banks interspersed by narrow regular ditches. They traverse the slope of the hill and on their northeast side may be cut or altered by post medieval extractive activity (see MDO43028), which has complicated the precise character and relationship of features in this area - a trackway running along the crest of the slope and possibly associated with extractive pit/quarry MDO43028 may re-use some of these earlier banks, although this is not clear. The features may be lynchets or field boundaries, possibly of medieval date, although an earlier, possibly prehistoric, origin for some features is also possible. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

The features are partially under trees but some remain visible on current Google Earth imagery.

<1> Royal Air Force, 15-APR-45, RAF/106G/LA/218 FS 2040 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17026.

<2> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RS 4378-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17025.

<2> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1975 FP 1053-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17015.

Record last edited

Feb 9 2021 8:37AM