MEM23336 - 19th Century drainage ditch near Pinkery Farm (Monument)

This feature belongs to a collection of earthworks which were previously interpreted as a prehistoric field system and associated burial mound (see MSO10133). These have been analysed and reinterpreted as a complex of drainage channels. To ensure the record is clear, child records have been created for each feature and linked to the parent record for the whole complex (MSO10133) where full details of the progression of interpretation can be seen. [1] Field investigation in 2013 noted this feature as a broad, spread bank, 1.4 metres wide and 0.6 metres high, with a silted channel on the northeast (upslope) side. This runs for 250 metres southeast-northwest across the spur between Short Combe and Pinkery Farm. This is a silted up drainage ditch, one of five which drain the spur by channelling water into a drainage system on the steep slope to the west (MEM23342). A small bank, 1 metre wide, 0.3 metres high, just the north of the west end of the channel (NGR 272517 141067), is part of a silted up drainage ditch. The features are earlier than the enclosure banks nearby (MEM23345) and probably dates from 1849-50 when George Groves farmed part of Pinkery from Driver Cott. [2]