Monument record MDO583 - Medieval strip lynchets, Burleston

Medieval strip lynchets are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs of the 1940s and 1970s. Two partial lynchets can be seen as surviving earthworks on lidar imagery of 2010.

This strip lynchet has been worn down by ploughing to a rounded scarp which merges with the natural slope of the hillside. <2> The lynchet described in <1> and a second lynchet parallel to it are visible as earthworks on lidar imagery of 2010. A continuation of these lynchets and further field boundaries can be seen as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs of the 1940s and 1970s, but no longer appear to survive. The lynchets are oriented approximately north-south and are formed of banks and ditches measuring up to 240 m in length. Further boundaries lying perpendicular to them are visible as narrow ditches on lidar imagery of 2010. <3-6> An area of now levelled ridge and furrow is located immediately to the north and may have been part of the same system of cultivation (see MDO30643). This feature was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

Record last edited

Sep 26 2023 4:49PM