Monument record MDO3414 - Prehistoric field system on Sheepdown and Cowleaze, Winterbourne Steepleton

An enclosed Iron Age/Romano-British field system, in places overlain by medieval ridge and furrow, is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs.

SY 610886. An extensive Iron Age/Romano British type field system, almost entirely under pasture. The lynchets and field banks are from 0.3m to 0.5m high to the north-west of the Portesham-Steepleton road and considerably higher to the south-east of the road. Throughout they form irregular fields. No traces of a settlement exist. <1> Sheep Down and Cowleaze. The slight bank (j) (see plan) with a ditch on the South running North West for some 450 yds across Sheep Down, was possibly an original boundary between 'Celtic' fields and the unploughed area containing barrows. Cowleaze was mostly covered with 'Celtic' fields, later overlaid by recent banks forming enclosures, and by strip fields. The latest phase of ploughing has often formed secondary lynchet lines under the 'Celtic' field boundaries giving a false impression of double- lynchet tracks. Some of the better preserved fields lie on the East slopes of the narrow combe running South West from Loscombe Plantation. <3> The Celtic and medieval field systems as described by Auths 2 and 3 have been modified by ploughing in varying degrees. The field banks and lynchets north-west of the Portesham-Steepleton road (area centred SY 604887) have been virtually ploughed out; elsewhere they remain as depicted on OS 25", prominent where they cross woods and plantations. The best preserved areas are centred at SY 612888 and SY 610882. Detail deleted in part on 1:2500 MSD. <4> Geophysical survey and excavation on Cowleaze Down located earlier, Celtic, field boundaries which were adapted and incorporated into the medieval pattern, but little now remains of the Celtic fields. <5> Fragments of an enclosed Iron Age field system are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs <6-12>. It consists of pronounced field banks and lynchets that were formerly more extensive and well preserved, as notable on the 1946-7 RAF Aerial photographs <6-7> They have since been much reduced by modern ploughing and are now mainly visible as occasional cropmarks {3-6}. To the northwest they are overlaid or integrated into a later pattern of broad medieval ridge-and-furrow (MDO24290).

Record last edited

May 19 2023 2:01PM