MEM22583 - Post-medieval drainage ditches on Halscombe (Monument)

A large scale metric survey of an area of earthworks on Halscombe was undertaken by Hazel Riley in 2013 as part of the Exmoor Mires Project. Three narrow drainage ditches were surveyed, measuring 1 metre wide and 0.4 to 0.7 metres deep, on the south side of a tributary of Halscombe Water. One ditch drains an area of peat cutting (MEM22582) and another cuts a probable prospecting trench (MEM22576). They date from the latter part of the 19th Century or the early 20th Century, when the grazing potential of the area was being improved. [1]