MMO2718 - Post-medieval water meadow east of Rockley Farm (Monument)

A post-medieval water meadow system, known locally as a catchwater meadow, is visible on aerial photographs as a series of earthworks. This system may or may not have been attached to the one to the southwest at Rockley Farm.

A post-medieval water meadow system, known locally as a catchwater meadow, is visible on aerial photographs as a series of earthworks east of Rockley Farm, Brayford. Centred at approximately SS 7090 3831, three parallel curvilinear gutters are visible stretching across a steep east facing slope above Castle Combe. The gutters extend across two fields, covering an area of approximately 2.5 hectares. This system does not appear to be connected to any local farmyards, suggesting that this was a detached system which only distributed water to the fields and not liquid manure or other fertilisers. However, it may have originally been connected to the larger water meadow system at Rockley Farm, which was an integrated system (see MMO2716). There is no indication as to the source of water for this system, although it appears to have drained into Castle Combe. 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. [1-3] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [4]