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HER Number: | MDV108600 |
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Name: | Catch Meadow to the southwest of Chevithorne Barton |
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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 1946, to the southwest of Chevithorne Barton.
Location
Grid Reference: | SS 982 153 |
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Map Sheet: | SS91NE |
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Admin Area | Devon |
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Civil Parish | Tiverton |
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District | Mid Devon |
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Ecclesiastical Parish | TIVERTON |
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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
Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1823 RS, RAF/CPE/UK/1823 RS 4335-36 04-NOV-1946 (Aerial Photograph). SDV356902.
The catch meadow is visible as a series of earthwork ditches.
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 1946, to the southwest of Chevithorne Barton. 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 extensive catch meadow covers an area of approximately 20 hectares of south and southeast facing slope. The system comprises a series of gutters which measure less than 2m in width and appear to tap a spring-fed stream to the northeast of the system. 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 catch meadow, which predominantly falls outside the project area of this survey, was not clearly visible on the limited aerial photographs available after 1946 and its survival remains largely uncertain.
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. |
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| Linked documents:1 |
SDV356902 | Aerial Photograph: Royal Air Force. 1946. RAF/CPE/UK/1823 RS. Royal Air Force Aerial Photograph. Photograph (Paper). RAF/CPE/UK/1823 RS 4335-36 04-NOV-1946. [Mapped feature: #67954 ] |
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Associated Monuments: none recorded
Associated Finds: none recorded
Associated Events
- EDV6530 - The East and Mid-Devon Rivers Catchment NMP project (Ref: ACD613)
Date Last Edited: | Dec 4 2014 10:04AM |
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