Monument record MDO6521 - Portland Open Fields (Great West Field ?)

According to the RCHM for Dorset published in 1970, some 12 acres of strip fields survived here. An area of strip lynchets is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs of the 1960s. A large proportion of the lynchets are still extant on aerial imagery of 2009.

The Isle of Portland was a royal manor in 1086, and divided into five tithings and organised into two or three-filed rotation until the communal management finished in the 19th century. It is suggested that an original settlement at Wakeham was the nucleus for the expansion of the open fields across Portland. Although the fields have been destroyed over time by quarrying, building and later cultivation, some of the strip fields, some of which are still cultivated , survive over some 150 acres. This system of strip fields at SY680692 may be a surviving remnant of the Great West Field? or South Field? (the name of this field as known c. 1800). The strips are modestly arranged in furlongs butting at right-angles. I this field truncated strips up to 400 yards long, have a reversed S-curve. Where they are less disturbed the strips are divided by grass baulks about 2ft wide, and lynchets up to 4ft high have built up on the slopes. Some of the risers here are capped by baulks where the plough stopped short of the head of the lynchet. To the SW of these fields there are Mere-stones believed to be of 19th century date (1)

The area of strip lynchets described above (in 1-2) is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs of the 1960s. (3) A large proportion of the lynchets are still extant on aerial imagery of 2009. The lynchets are oriented east-west and cover an area measuring approximately 435 m by 165 m. (4) This site was digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 259 (Monograph). SDO149.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3 (Monograph). SDO150.

<2> DCC SMR, to 2003, Former DCC SMR Card Index (Index). SWX8285.

<3> Meridian Air Maps Ltd, 01-FEB-1968, MAL 68004/086-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13030.

<4> XX-XXX-2009, Google Earth (Aerial Photograph). SDO12705.

Record last edited

Sep 11 2024 3:53PM