MDE1097 - Undated lynchet on Kentisbury Down (Monument)

A vestigial terrace or lynchet runs diagonally from east to west across the field in which most of the flints were found (MDE1097 OS Field No 430 at SS 631439). A short sunken way ascending the field cuts through the edge of the terrace. After ploughing in 1966 the Rev Ayre, rector of Kentisbury and Charles Whybrow noted a difference in soil colour between the edge of the terrace and the ground at its foot. Evidence of settlement was sought without result. [1,2] A pair of very spread and amorphous lynchet scarps (up to 0.7 metres in height) lying within an area of enclosed land on Kentisbury Down. Kentisbury Down was enclosed sometime between 1840 and the 1880s; before enclosure, it is depicted (on the Tithe Map [3]) as an area of featureless moorland. [4-6] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [7]