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Summary

A possible simple catchmeadow system is visible as a curvilinear earthwork ditch on aerial photographs taken in 1947, and partial slight earthworks appear to have survived in 2010.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CATCH MEADOW? (XIX to XX - 1801 AD to 1946 AD (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FP 3285-3286 11-APR-1947 (Aerial Photograph). SDV356127.

A curvilinear ditch is visible as an earthwork.

Environment Agency, 2005-2012, LiDAR DTM data JPEG image (1m resolution), LIDAR ST0810 Environment Agency DTM 05-MAR-2010 (Cartographic). SDV357033.

Part of the curvilinear ditch is visible as an earthwork.

Hegarty, C. + Knight, S. + Sims, R., 2014-2015, East and Mid Devon River Catchments National Mapping Programme Project (Interpretation). SDV356883.

A possible simple catchmeadow system north-west of Smithincott Farm is visible as a curvilinear earthwork ditch on aerial photographs taken in 1947. The narrow ditch, less than 2 metres wide, closely follows the contour, dropping less than 5 metres over 170 metres. The location and alignment along the contour indicate that this could have been the gutter of a small catchmeadow system of probable nineteenth or early twentieth century date.
Many catch meadow systems are believed to date to the post medieval period, although it is likely that they were first developed in the medieval period and often continued in use into the twentieth century. Catch meadows provided a simple, inexpensive and effective form of irrigation. When irrigation was required water was diverted from a source such as a pond, river, spring or spring-fed stream and passed along the meadow slopes via one or more of the gutters, which was then caused to overflow. The lower, roughly parallel gutters then ‘caught’ and redistributed water passing it 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, particularly important during the hungry gap of the March and April.
This source for this small probable catch meadow system is not clearly apparent from the available aerial photographs, but may have come from a spring near the farmstead at circa ST0619311624. A short, probably truncated section of the earthwork appears to have survived and is indistinctly visible on images derived from lidar data captured in 2010.

Sources / Further Reading

SDV356127	Aerial Photograph: Royal Air Force. 1947. RAF/CPE/UK/1974. Royal Air Force Aerial Photograph. Photograph (Paper). RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FP 3285-3286 11-APR-1947. [Mapped feature: #67418 ]
SDV356883	Interpretation: Hegarty, C. + Knight, S. + Sims, R.. 2014-2015. East and Mid Devon River Catchments National Mapping Programme Project. AC Archaeology Report. Digital.
	Linked documents:1
SDV357033	Cartographic: Environment Agency. 2005-2012. LiDAR DTM data JPEG image (1m resolution). Environment Agency LiDAR data. Digital. LIDAR ST0810 Environment Agency DTM 05-MAR-2010.

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6530 - The East and Mid-Devon Rivers Catchment NMP project (Ref: ACD613)

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