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Summary

A water-meadow of probable 19th century date is visible on aerial photographs of the 1940s onward as a series of earthwork ditches to the south and west of Rowden Court. Such water-meadows, known as catchwork, catch meadow or field-gutter systems, 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, 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.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Remains of catch meadow systems of probable 19th century date to south-west of Rowden Court

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CATCH MEADOW (Post Medieval to Late 20th Century - 1540 AD to 2000 AD (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, RAF/CPE/UK/1890 FP 1081-1084 10-DEC-1946 (Aerial Photograph). SDV351061.

Water meadow gutters are visible as earthwork ditches with occasional flanking earthwork banks.

Next Perspectives, 2002, Pan Government Agreement Aerial Photographs, Next Perspectives PGA Imagery SX5546 16-AUG-2002 (Aerial Photograph). SDV351189.

The earthwork ditches and banks are no longer clearly visible.

Hegarty, C. + Knight, S. + Sims, R., 2013-2014, South Devon Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Project (Interpretation). SDV351146.

An extensive post medieval water meadow, known locally as a catchwater meadow system, is visible on aerial photographs of 1945 onwards as a series of roughly parallel earthwork ditches to the south and west of Rowden Court, formerly Rowden Farm, with which it was probably associated.
Catch meadows provided a simple, inexpensive but effective form of irrigation, designed to irrigate pasture by diverting water from a spring or stream along the slope via a series of roughly parallel channels or gutters. A larger gutter, often called a headmain, tapped water from a source such as a river, spring or spring-fed stream. When irrigation was required the headmain was dammed, causing water to overflow downslope, where the roughly parallel gutters distributed the flowing water evenly over the surface of a meadow below. The gently flowing water prevented the ground freezing in winter and encouraged early growth in spring, thereby providing extra feed for livestock. Most catchwater meadow systems are believed to date to the post medieval period, although it is possible that they were first developed in the medieval period.
The Rowden catch meadow covers nearly 6 hectares of south-facing slope below the farmstead. The largest area of the system appears to tap a spring-fed stream that rises about 250 metres to the south-east of the farm. A smaller section of the system is laid out immediately south of the farm, for which no water source is evident from the map evidence available to the survey. This section might have operated as what has been called an ‘integrated’ catch meadow, in which manure from the cow sheds within the farmyard is mixed with the water supply to supply liquid manure to the pasture.
Much of the system remains visible as earthwork ditches on digital images derived from aerial photographs taken in 2002, but the majority of fields in which it is located have been converted to arable cultivation by 2007 and the earthworks levelled.

Sources / Further Reading

SDV351061	Aerial Photograph: Royal Air Force. 1946. RAF/CPE/UK/1890. Royal Air Force Aerial Photograph. Photograph (Paper). RAF/CPE/UK/1890 FP 1081-1084 10-DEC-1946.
SDV351146	Interpretation: Hegarty, C. + Knight, S. + Sims, R.. 2013-2014. South Devon Coast Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme Project. AC Archaeology Report. Digital.
	Linked documents:1
SDV351189	Aerial Photograph: Next Perspectives. 2002. Pan Government Agreement Aerial Photographs. Pan Government Agreement Aerial Photographs. Digital. Next Perspectives PGA Imagery SX5546 16-AUG-2002.

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6127 - Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey National Mapping Programme (NMP) for South-West England - South Coast Devon (Ref: ACD618)

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