Monument record MDO39629 - Historic field boundary, Berry Hill, Bournemouth

A substantial banked field boundary in fields to the northwest of Berry Hill, Bournemouth, is visible on 1940s aerial photographs. It may form part of a wider field system of probable medieval origin, although it is more substantial in form than adjacent boundaries to the east. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

A substantial banked field boundary in fields on the south side of the River Stour, northwest of Berry Hill, Bournemouth, is visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1).

The boundary is slightly curvilinear in form and around 123m in length. It may be associated with adjacent field boundaries to the east ((MDO39630) and also some shown on the OS 1st Edition map and still extant),which probably fossilise former medieval strips within a larger area of medieval open field, although it is more substantial in form than these. It runs between the corners of two field boundaries to the south that may be of later post medieval origin, suggesting possible alteration of the medieval enclosure pattern on the east side of this part of the River Stour during the post medieval period.

The banked boundary is still extant on current Google Earth imagery (2) and was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

<1> Royal Air Force, 30-OCT-45, RAF/106G/T/16 FVp1 7100-1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15530.

<2> Google Earth, 2017, Google Earth 2017 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15388.

Record last edited

Oct 11 2017 1:37PM