MMO3006 - Post-medieval water meadow south and west of Brightworthy Farm (Monument)

A water meadow of probable post-medieval date can be seen on aerial photographs of the 1940s, as earthworks covering approximately 1.5 hectares of the valley slopes to south and west of Brightworthy, centred on circa SS 8314 3578. It is of a type typically found on the combe sides or hill slopes of Exmoor, known as a catch work, ditch gutter or field gutter system. Catch works were designed to irrigate pasture by diverting water from a spring or stream along the slope via a series of roughly parallel channels or gutters, although simple examples consisting of only a single gutter are common. 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. The gutters remain visible on aerial photographs of 1982 and can be seen to cut the line of the now removed field boundaries. [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]