Monument record MDO40892 - Historic field boundaries, Grange, Holt

Banked and ditched linear features to the east of Grange are visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The features are presumed to be historic field boundaries which may include features of medieval and post medieval origin. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Banked and ditched linear features to the east of Grange are visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1).

The features comprise narrow linear and curvilinear ditches and banks that sub-divide a series of irregular historic enclosures recorded on the OS 1st Edition map and whose curvilinear boundaries are likely to be medieval in origin (2). The boundaries of some of these historic enclosures probably fossilse medieval strip fields within a larger area of former medieval open field. In particular one long curvilinear banked feature aligns southwest to northeast echoing the curve of the road to the east and a curving historic field boundary to the northwest. The feature is marked by a dispersed row of trees on the OS 1st Edition map and is likely to be a field boundary of medieval date, possibly also marking the line of a former medieval strip field boundary (2). This feature is offset in two places by narrow rectilinear ditched features which are presumed to be field boundaries of post medieval date (1). Additional banked and ditched linear features in the northwest of the group may also be historic field boundaries of medieval and/or post medieval date.

The site is still open ground on current Google Earth imagery and the features are still visible; they show particularly well in the year 2005 (3).

The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RP 3103-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15953.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

<3> Google Earth, XX-XXX-2005, EARTH.GOOGLE.COM (Aerial Photograph). SDO12698.

Record last edited

May 10 2018 11:04AM