More information : Centred at SS 68004008. An area of strip cultivation or lynchetting covering at least 8 ha is visible on APs. (1)
Cursory examination revealed that the majority of the area had been improved, flattening all surface features. However, in places some slight traces of the former lynchetting survives. (2)
The features described above are a system of Medieval strip fields extends around Barton Town. The fields are defined by curving parallel lynchets and are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs. These relict fields were possibly part of an infield-outfield system where the outfield was usually an area of poorer grassland or moorland, and the infield was an area of intensly cultivated strip fields. The main concentration of surviving lychets extends over an area measuring up to 1150m E-W and 800m N-S. More fragmentary remains are visible as far east as the river Bray, to the south of Barton Gate. The fields around Barton Town are part of an extensive system of strip fields around the settlements and farms in Challacombe parish (see NMR Monument 1301286, SS 64 SE 67).
The field system is centred at SS 6794 4073 and the main concentration extends across an area within the following grid references: SS 6745 4102, SS 6833 4110, 6857 4043, 6781 4028. There are more lynchets to the east centred at SS 6855 4092 and SS 6881 4089. (3-4) |