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Summary

Field boundaries of probable medieval to post-medieval date are visible to the north-east of Bere Alston as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs with some identifiable as earthwork banks and a ditch on visualisations derived from lidar data captured in 2013 and 2019.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FIELD BOUNDARY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Full description

Devon County Council, 1838-1848, Tithe Mosaic, approximately 1838-1848 (Cartographic). SDV349431.

Some of the field boundaries are depicted on this map.

Environment Agency, 2000-2019, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) EA: Tamar Aerial Survey project area, LIDAR Environment Agency LAST RETURN 19-APR-2019 (Cartographic). SDV363954.

Banks and a ditch are identifiable as earthworks.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 2001-2002, Tamar Valley National Mapping Programme Transcriptions and Database Records, OS74/158/005-6; RAF CPE/1890/F2/2343-4; RAF170/V17/1710Z/0095-6; RAF CPE1890/F20/2434-4 (Interpretation). SDV346287.

A number of groups of cropmark and earthwork ditches and banks have been transcribed from photographs OS74/158/005-6; RAF CPE/1890/F2/2343-4; RAF170/V17/1710Z/0095-6 and RAF CPE1890/F20/2434-4. The western most of these corresponds to a database record of a possible medieval field system visible as cropmark ditches, and the other transcriptions are also likely to be part of this record.

NERC, 2013, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) Tellus: Tamar Aerial Survey project area, LIDAR Tellus LAST RETURN 01-JUL-2013 to 31-AUG-2013 (Cartographic). SDV363955.

Banks and a ditch are identifiable as earthworks.

Hegarty, C., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2016, Backlog Recording of the Tamar Valley National Mapping Programme Survey (Personal Comment). SDV359374.

Only part of the photo reference is given in the transcription attributes, so the date of the photographs is not known.

Hegarty, C., Houghton, E., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2020-2021, Tamar/Lidar; A Single Source Approach to Landscape Survey and Socially Distanced Community Archaeology Area 1 (AI&M project) (Interpretation). SDV363945.

Linear banks and a ditch are identifiable on visualisations derived from lidar data captured in 2013 and 2019 as earthworks crossing the contours of the south-east and east facing slopes to the north-east of Quarry Cross, Bere Ferrers.
One bank at circa SX46106736 corresponds with a boundary depicted on the Tithe Map for Bere Ferrers but most are not depicted on the 19th century maps available to the survey. Those at circa SX46526768 are within an area depicted as woodland and while they might be the remains of wood banks it is probable that they predate the establishment of the woodland.
The relict banks are in keeping with the character of the surrounding field pattern, which is probably of medieval origin, and are interpreted as the remains of former field boundaries of medieval date that had been cleared or superseded by the mid-19th century.
The earthworks identifiable from lidar derived sources complement the cropmark evidence recorded by the earlier NMP survey.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6911 - Tamar Valley National Mapping Programme
• EDV8345 - Tamar/Lidar; A Single Source Approach to Landscape Survey and Socially Distanced Community Archaeology Area 1 (AI&M) (Ref: ACD2380)

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