MMO2836 - Post-medieval water meadow west of West Nethercote (Monument)

A possible water meadow water channel, known as a gutter, is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs. It may be evidence for a simple intergrated system associated with the farmyard at West Nethercote.

A possible water meadow water channel, known as a gutter, is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs to the west of West Nethercote, centred on circa SS 8724 3617. Such water meadows, of a type known as a catchwork or field gutter system, are usually found on combe or hill slopes and are designed to irrigate pasture by diverting water from a spring or stream along the slope via a series of roughly parallel channels or gutters. When irrigation was required the gutters were blocked, causing water to overflow from gutter to gutter, thereby irrigating the slopes. This film of water prevented the ground freezing during the winter and raised the temperature of the grass in the spring, thereby encouraging early growth, particularly important during the hungry gap of the March and April. This gutter was probably supplied by a spring fed stream that rises to the north of East Nethercote, but may also be evidence for a simple intergrated system associated with the farmyard at West Nethercote. In such systems the water was passed through the farmyard to produce liquid manure which was subsequently distributed to the slopes. The system can be seen in operation on aerial photographs of 1947. [1-2] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [3]