MDE20820 - Medieval field system on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)

Low banks forming old field boundaries on west side of Cheriton Ridge. Their visibility is good on the 1947 and 1977 aerial photographs. A further bank centred at SS 7465 4332 is visible on an aerial photograph from 1979. [1-4] A substantial medieval or post-medieval field system is visible as a series of earthworks on the west facing slopes above Hoaroak Water, Lynton and Lynmouth. Centred at approximately SS 745 435, the banks extend over an area of approximately 22 hectares. The system is aligned approximately east to west on the slopes above Hoaroak Water. It may have continued into the flatter area of Cheriton Ridge, but there is no evidence for this. The banks form fairly regular, rectangular and sub rectangular enclosures. In places, the banks have been eroded by the flow of water leaving gullies and ditches. The field system is not depicted on the 1st Editon Ordnance Survey map, suggesting it had been abandoned some time prior to the publication in 1889. It seems likely that this was part of a medieval or early post-medieval attempt to enclose the moor which was unsuccessful. [5-8] A regular block of four fields, 150 to 200 metres square, with a rectangular enclosure 150 metres by 50 metres on the east side, lies to the south of the deserted medieval settlement on the west side of Cheriton Ridge. The field boundaries are banks, 1.5 to 2 metres wide and no more than 0.5 metres high, often with a ditch, 1 metre wide and 0.5 metres deep on the outer side. The banks are quite spread, a result of their age, but also because of later ploughing. This is evident on the Lidar image of the area and the 2010 aerial photographs and probably represents periodic cultivation of an arable crop – generally rye – in the 16th to 18th Centuries AD. [9] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [10]