Monument record MDO5380 - Strip lynchets in Launch Wood, Woolland

Strip lynchets in woodland, thought to be part of the open fields around the deserted village of Chitcombe. In 1970 it was reported that at least two of these lynchets survived as distinct earthwork terraces. A series of probable medieval strip lynchets all along the southeast facing slope and crest in Launch Wood, Woolland, are visible as banked linear earthworks on current Environment Agency lidar imagery. The features were digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

A series of probable medieval strip lynchets all along the southeast facing slope and crest in Launch Wood, Woolland, are visible as banked linear earthworks on current Environment Agency lidar imagery (EA 2018). Some of the features border the present day road, creating a hollow way that might be part of a medieval features. At their southern end, the features potentially merge with earlier elements of a later prehistoric field system within Ivers Wood and Broad Aldermore (MDO5386). The features were digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Environment Agency, xx-xxx-2018, Environment Agency National Lidar Programme DTM 1M (Aerial Photograph). SDO21483.

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 316 (Monograph). SDO136.

'(6) Cultivation Remains. Nothing is known of the open fields of Woolland; they were certainly enclosed by 1791 (Map of Woolland, D.C.R.O.) and 160 acres of enclosed land is recorded in 1560 (S. & D., N. & Q., vol. 19 (1927-9), 125). About 20 acres of ridge-and-furrow arranged in rectangular furlongs up to 150 yds. long remain in Woolland Park. To N. and E. of the park further traces can be seen on air photographs (R.A.F. CPE/UK 1974: 1176-80); they are unrelated to the present field boundaries.

On the steep N.W. face of the Chalk scarp (787069), immediately E. of Chitcombe Farm (3), a block of eight contour strip lynchets with risers up to 20 ft. high covers some 15 acres. These and two other strip lynchets in Launch Wood (777066) may be part of the open fields of Chitcombe.'

Record last edited

Feb 17 2026 12:34PM