Monument record MDO679 - Lynchet, Cattistock

Cultivation system and possible settlement East of Cattistock. Medieval strip fields are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery on the north west facing slope to the south east of Cattistock. They were digitally plotted during the Upper Frome and Sydling Valley AIM project.

Centred at SY 59689943 Two pronounced Md type strip lynchets under grass see air photos CPE/UK/1974/3384. <2>

Up to ten Medieval strip fields are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery on the north west facing slope to the south east of Cattistock <3-4>. They run roughly east-west and were digitally plotted during the Upper Frome and Sydling Valley AIM project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 73 (Monograph). SDO97.

CULTIVATION SYSTEM and perhaps settlement on Middle Hill ¾ miles E.N.E of the church, consist of a series of banks, some of them well-defined, representing cultivation of the Celtic type. At one point S. of the best preserved bank are slight traces of sixteen or more sinkings 3 to 5 yards in diam. And possibly representing hut hollows. The sinkings shown further east on the O.S. have been destroyed by gravel diggings. The cultivation system extends into Lankham Bottom.

<2> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 17-JAN-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<3> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2019, LIDAR Environment Agency Composite LAST RETURN (Photograph). SDO16524.

<4> Royal Air Force, 11-NOV-1971, RAF/39/3829 V 0042-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16526.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450610 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 28 2025 3:10PM