MDE11952 - Post-medieval field system on Farley Hill (Monument)

An extensive field system visible both on aerial photographs and on the ground as a series of earthen banks represents post-medieval attempts to enclose a field system in the area of Farley Hill, Little Hill and Middle Hill.

SS 754 458. A series of banks, banks and ditches, and ditches or leats running over moorland were noted during a site visit in 1979. They were thought to represent the remains of a field system, or associated with a nearby quarry. A barrow was noted to be situated within the system. [1] Low banks forming irregular shaped fields on the sides of Middle Hill, Little Hill and Farley Hill were noted on aerial photographs centred at SS 75504560. [2-4] The field system survives as earthen banks up to 0.7 metres high, and represents former attempts to enclose the lower slopes of this part of the Common. The circular features and mound could not be located. [5] An extensive system of earthwork banks visible on aerial photographs represents post-medieval attempts to enclose a field system in the area of Farley Hill, Little Hill and Middle Hill, Brendon parish, centred approximately on SS 754 456. The earthworks probably illustrate several phases of piecemeal enclosure, taking in several irregularly shaped areas around the western side of Farley Hill before ascending the narrow combe of a spring fed stream northeastwards to Little Hill. At Little Hill, a subrectangular enclosure centred on circa SS 754 455 may be one of the earliest intakes, as enclosures abut it to the northeast and southwest. Here, and 500 metres to the northwest at SS 7495 4581, surviving ridge and furrow reveal the efforts made to improve the ground for agricultural use. Two post-medieval quarries, one of which is marked on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map, appear to have cut through a section of one of the boundary banks at circa SS 7504 4579. [6-10] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [11]