MMO2157 - Post-medieval water meadow around Old Close Farm (Monument)

A post-medieval water meadow system, known locally as a catchwater meadow, is visible on aerial photographs as a series of earthworks in fields around Old Close Farm, Challacombe. Centred at approximately SS 7044 4088, five gutters are visible, located on a fairly steep south facing slope above Old Close Bottom. The gutters vary in length from 65 to 130 metres, and are between 2 and 3 metres wide. In several places they are overlain by extant field boundaries, most of which are depicted on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1890. This would seem to suggest that the water meadow predates the field system, and was constructed prior to the publication of the map in 1890. This system appears to be connected to the farmyard at Old Close, suggesting that this was an integrated system which also distributed liquid manure as fertiliser to the fields. Catchwater meadows used a series of approximately parallel gutters to distribute flowing water evenly over the surface of the meadow in order to prevent freezing in winter and encourage early growth in spring, thereby providing extra feed for livestock. Most catchwater meadows are believed to date to the post-medieval period, although it is possible that they were first developed in the medieval period. [1-4] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [5]