Monument record MDO41692 - Possible late prehistoric lynchets and field boundaries, Barford Farm, Shapwick, Pamphill

Ditched and banked linear features to the northwest of Barford Farm are visible on aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery. The features are likely to be predominantly agricultural in origin, probably lynchets and field boundaries and possibly sections of trackway. The features are situated within a complex late prehistoric landscape and may be broadly contemporary with this, possibly Iron Age or Romano-British in date. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Ditched and banked linear features to the northwest of Barford Farm are visible on aerial photographs and current Lidar imagery (1-4).

The features comprise sections osf broad linear and curvilinear banks inter-set by several narrower linear ditches. The broad alignment of the features, on a SW-NE axis, echoes that of the historic fields, the large regular character of which suggest a post medieval date (5). Some of the linear features underlie the historic field boundaries, however, and clearly pre-date them. It is likely that the features are also predominantly agricultural in origin, probably lynchets and field boundaries and possibly sections of trackway; it is possible that some features are, however, of natural geological origin. The features are situated within a complex late prehistoric landscape and may be broadly contemporary with this, possibly Iron Age or Romano-British in date.

They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 16-MAY-55, RAF/58/869 RP 3005-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16228.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 24-APR-88, OS/88055 72-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16226.

<3> National Monuments Record, 04-SEP-95, NMR 15397/48-9 (ST9600/3-4) (Aerial Photograph). SDO16227.

<4> Environment Agency, XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 50cm (Aerial Photograph). SDO15306.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

Sep 17 2018 1:43PM