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Summary

A distinct field bank or lynchet and/or drainage ditch from SS55783171 to SS55653235. Possibly some form of water carrier, rather than a simple ditch, and may be associated with tpossible water meadows or drainage features to the west, and with drains on the east side running out into the former marsh.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• DRAINAGE SYSTEM (Unknown date)

Full description

Chris Blandford Associates, 1997, Barnstaple Western Bypass and Urban Relief Road Stage 4. Environmental Assessment Phase A, 15 (Report - Assessment). SDV347381.

A distinct field bank or lynchet and/or drainage ditch from SS55783171 to SS55653235. Can be traced on air photographs and on the gound for most of this distance from the barn complex at Pill Farm to high ground on the edge of the railway cutting above and to the south-west of Barnstaple Junction Station. It is shown on the 1842/3 Tithe Map but had largely disappeared by the time of the 1887-8 Ordnance Survey map, presumably having been abandoned as a field boundary when the railway was built in the 1850s, and the remnants of fields to the west of the line were incorporated into those further up the slope to the west.
It forms a particularly distinctive earthwork feature between SS55743200 and SS55703210, where it appears as a wide low bank with a ditch on the downsloe (east) side. To the south of this section, as far as Pill Barn, it appears as a ditched feature with a narrow bank on either side and can be seen very distinctly on a 1965 air photograph. The character of this section of the boundary suggests some form of possible water carrier, rather than a simple ditch, and may possibly be connected with the features on the up-slope or west side, which are reminiscent of water meadows or drainage features, and to drains on the east side running out into the former marsh. Further to the north, beyond the derelict barn at SS55683223, the line is marked by a stone-revetted lynchet with a "terrace" or former trackway on the downslope (east) side. This feature has been truncated at the norther end by the railway cutting.

Lewis, D., Sept 2011, Land at Larkbear, Barnstaple: Archaeological Desk-based Assessment, 12 (Report - Assessment). SDV352261.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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