Monument record MWX268 - Medieval field system, Chapel Hill, Abbotsbury

Medieval field system on Chapel Hill, situated to the south west of the village of Abbotsbury. The field system includes a group of strip lynchets which includes terraces 5.5 metres to 11 metres wide, which run parallel with the natural slope of the hill.

(SY 572847) Field system plotted from air photographs in Jan-March 1949. <2>

They are known as the Lawns. <3>

Lynchets almost entirely surround Chapel Hill Abbotsbury forming terraces from 6 to 25 yds wide. <4>

See air photgraph RAF CPE/UK/2431 4287. <5>

A system of pronounced medieval type strip lynchets. (1-8)

Seen on an AP of 1970s. <8>

The system of medieval strip fields is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and Lidar imagery <9-10> and was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Crawford, O G S, Annotated record map 6 inch (Map). SWX7265.

Strip Lynchets

<2> Atkinson, R J C, Annotated Record Map Private 6 Sheet (R J C Atkinson Undated) (Map). SWX1667.

<3> Drew C D, 1948, Open arable fields at Portland and elsewhere, 79 (Article in serial). SWX1668.

<3.1> Lord Ilchester, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments: Lord Ilchester (Verbal communication). SWX8216.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West) (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(36) LYNCHETS on Chapel Hill, 700 yards S.W. of the church, almost entirely surround the hill. The width of the terraces varies from 6 to 25 yards.’

<5> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 23-MAR-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<6> 1978, List of ancient monuments in England: Southern England, p83 (Monograph). SWX1558.

<7> DCMS, 1997, Scheduled Monument Notification 1997, 12/06/1997 (Scheduling record). SDO17426.

<8> Anon, 1970s APs, AP70_357000E_85000N (Digital archive). SWX8820.

<9> 01-FEB-1968, MAL 6804 002-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12199.

<10> 31-OCT-2006, D0067837 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12200.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450549 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 5 2024 5:13PM