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Summary

A catch meadow of probable 19th century date is visible as a series of earthwork ditches on aerial photographs of 1967, to the southwest of Tidcombe Hall.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CATCH MEADOW (Post Medieval to Modern - 1540 AD to 2013 AD (Between))

Full description

Meridian Airmaps Limited, 1967, MAL/67001 V, MAL/67001 V 219-220 19-JAN-1967 (Aerial Photograph). SDV357340.

The catch meadow is visible as a series of earthwork ditches.

Ordnance Survey, 1988, OS/88278 V, OS/88278 V 001-02 02-OCT-1988 (Aerial Photograph). SDV357342.

The site of the catch meadow has been completely levelled and the area developed for residential housing.

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

A catch meadow of probable 19th century date is visible as a series of earthwork ditches on aerial photographs of 1967, to the southwest of Tidcombe Hall. Most 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. 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 March and April. The catch meadow covers an area of approximately 0.26 hectares of northwest facing slope. The system comprises a series of gutters which measure less than 2m in width and which appear to tap a northwest to southeast aligned drain which appears to divert the flow of water from a stream located approximately 138m to the southeast. It is unclear from the aerial photographs alone with which farm this water meadow system might have been associated with. Not being directly linked to a farmstead it probably operated as a ‘detached’ system. The site of the catch meadow has been completely levelled and the area developed for residential housing by 1988.

Sources / Further Reading

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
SDV357340	Aerial Photograph: Meridian Airmaps Limited. 1967. MAL/67001 V. Meridian Airmaps Limited Aerial Photograph. Photograph (Paper). MAL/67001 V 219-220 19-JAN-1967. [Mapped feature: #67760 ]
SDV357342	Aerial Photograph: Ordnance Survey. 1988. OS/88278 V. Ordnance Survey Aerial Photograph. Photograph (Paper). OS/88278 V 001-02 02-OCT-1988.

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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