More information : Centred at SS 85243471 on Bradley Hams are the remains of a two-phase field system covering 46.5 hectares. The earliest phase is medieval and is associated with the farmstead at SS 85683491 (SS 83 SE 11). It is centred on SS 85633498 and consists of very slight curving field banks running under the later banks, and cut on the east by Bradley Pond.
The second phase consists of effaced field banks associated with the surviving banks prior to the enlargement of the fields. They ran across the whole area of Bradley Hams as one field, therefore suggesting that all of the field banks were constructed later than 1841. The banks have been identified from air photographs (2).
Associated with this phase are a series of lynchets to the north centred around SS 85383465 measuring around 0.5m high and identified from air photographs (2). Downslope of these at SS 85293454 are the remains of a building platform measuring 16.6m across the slope by 8.7m cut into the natural hillside. To the south-east a track runs up the slope from it.
During the first half of the century the field containing Bradley Pond and the medieval field system hosted a horse-racing track for local farmers, the field being known locally as "the race track" (3). (1-4)
The remains of a two-phase field system covering circa 60 hectares can be seen as earthworks on aerial photographs of the 1940s onwards. As described by the above authority, slightly curving field banks are visible near Bradley pond, but can also be seen to the west of Bradley Hams at circa SS 85323479. These are indicative of a probable medieval phase of enclosure and are overlain by more regular boundary banks of post-medieval, and probably 19th century date. These boundaries extend to the north-east of Bradley pond, laterally crossing Bradley Hams dividing the hill into a series of regular sub-rectangular fields. These earthworks have suffered some erosion from agricultural improvements by the 1970s. (5-8)
|