Monument record MDO7642 - Medieval strip lynchets, Maiden Plantation, East Lulworth

A series of parallel sinuous banks and ditches are visible as earthworks on aerial photogaphs and Lidar imagery. They are considered likely to be the remains of strip lynchets and trackways associated with medieval cultivation in this area. Now partly in woodland, a plantation having been planted at some point in the post-medieval period.

Medieval strip lynchets of contour type, very disturbed, cover 5 acres immediately west of Maiden Plantation. <1>

Strip Lynchets were long, narrow cultivation terraces, usually open ended, with risers (lynchets) above and below the cultivated treads. They appear post Roman and represent strip cultivation on a hillside. A prominent riser marks the boundry between the West Field and the Little Field of 1770 shown on J. Sparrow's Estate Map (in D.C.R.O.) <2>

A series of parallel sinuous banks and ditches are visible as earthworks on aerial photogaphs <3-4> and Lidar imagery <5> of Maiden Plantation. They are considered likely to be the remains of strip lynchets and trackways associated with medieval cultivation in this area. These features were digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset). They have since been partially planted over by by a plantation at some point in the post-medieval period.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 1, 151 (Monograph). SDO148.

‘(28) STRIP LYNCHETS of contour type, very disturbed, cover 5 acres immediately W. of Maiden Plantation (853809). A prominent riser marks the boundary between the West Field and the Little Field of 1770 shown on J. Sparrow's Estate Map (in D.C.R.O.). (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1821: 5429.)’

<1.1> Royal Air Force, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 5429-30 (Aerial Photograph). SWX2626.

<2> Sparrow, J, 1770, Estate Map of East Lulworth (Cartographic materials). SDO14011.

<3> Royal Air Force, 18-FEB-1970, RAF 58/0254 0011-12 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12952.

<4> Channel Coastal Observatory, 20-JUL-2008, CCO Aerial Photographic Coverage 2008 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12674.

<5> Channel Coastal Observatory, 25-FEB-2009, Lidar (Aerial Photograph). SDO12879.

<6> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455499 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 24 2023 4:47PM