Monument record MDO48401 - Medieval strip field, Cerne Abbas

Several areas of parallel and closely set banked lynchets in fields to the west of Cerne Abbas are visible as earthworks on Environment Agency lidar imagery. The features are considered to probably be strip lynchets, possibly part of a medieval strip field system - closest to the west the features infill strip field boundaries still extant at the time of the OS 1st Edition map, which might alternatively, or additionally, indicate an area of former medieval burgage plots. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

Several areas of parallel and closely set banked lynchets in fields to the west of Cerne Abbas are visible as earthworks on Environment Agency lidar imagery [1]. The features are considered to probably be strip lynchets and possibly ridge and furrow cultivation, possibly forming part of a medieval strip field system - closest to the west the features infill strip field boundaries still extant at the time of the OS 1st Edition map, which might alternatively, or additionally, indicate an area of former medieval burgage plots [2]. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Cornwall Council, 2025, 2025 AI&M Cerne and Piddle HE9364 (Machine readable data file). SDO21761.

<1> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch 1 (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

May 7 2026 2:49PM