Monument record MDO5302 - Medieval ridge and furrow and field boundaries, Winterborne Stickland

The remains of a medieval field system including ridge and furrow cultivation is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery to the west of Winterborne Stickland village. It was digitally recorded during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM.

The earthwork remains of the open fields around Winterborne Quarleston, in the form of two blocks of ridge-and-furrow, divided at intervals by low strip lynchets. These fields were enclosed by 1735. <1>
The remains of a medieval field system including ridge and furrow cultivation is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery to the west of Winterborne Stickland village <2-3>. It was digitally recorded during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM.

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 309 (Monograph). SDO136.

'(17) CULTIVATION REMAINS. Although the open fields of Winterborne Stickland were not enclosed until 1802 (Enclosure Award, D.C.R.O.) they appear to have been subject to re-organisation in the 18th century. In 1735 they were divided into five separate fields (Map of Milton Abbas and Stickland, D.C.R.O.) but by 1771 the same area had only three fields (Map of Milton Abbas and Stickland by W. Woodward, see above, p 183). . . . Nothing is known of the open fields of Quarleston except that they were already enclosed by 1735. Remains of these fields lie along the W. side of the Winterborne valley, between Stickland Cottage and Quarleston Farm (835044-835039), at the mouth of a dry valley; they consist of two blocks of ridge-and-furrow, up to 200 yds. long and 5 yds. to 7 yds. wide, divided at intervals by low strip lynchets.'

<2> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 FP 1089 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19774.

<3> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Apr 25 2023 6:51PM