Monument record MDO5300 - Medieval strip lynchets, Winterborne Stickland

A block of four contour strip lynchets described in 1970 as surviving as slight earthworks, heavily ploughed. Part of the open field system around Winterborne Stickland. A map of 1771 shows these in 'Lecks Larch Furlong' in Middle Field. The strip lynchets are visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project. They are part of a wider field system extending to the north and east which is likely to be of prehistoric origin.

A series of strip lynchets are visible as earthworks on lidar imagery to the south of Longmead Cottages [2]. They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project. They are part of a wider field system extending to the north and east which is likely to be of prehistoric origin.

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 309 (Monograph). SDO136.

'(17) CULTIVATION REMAINS. Although the open fields of Winterborne Stickland were not enclosed until 1802 (Enclosure Award, D.C.R.O.) they appear to have been subject to re-organisation in the 18th century. In 1735 they were divided into five separate fields (Map of Milton Abbas and Stickland, D.C.R.O.) but by 1771 the same area had only three fields (Map of Milton Abbas and Stickland by W. Woodward, see above, p 183). . . . A group of four contour strip lynchets, also almost ploughed out, lies on the S. side of a dry valley immediately S.E. of New Barn Cottages (830053); in 1771 they were strips in 'Lecks Larch Furlong' in Middle Field. . . . '

<2> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Nov 8 2022 3:45PM