MEM25066 - Post-medieval drainage system on South Regis and Shoulsbarrow Common (Monument)

The site was subject to field survey in 2017. SS 70815 40113. Several drainage ditches running southwest to northwest take water into a tributary stream of the River Bray. The ditches are substantial features in the landscape: 2 metres wide, 0.9 metres deep and some 700 metres long; in several places, mounds and banks of spoil from cleaning them out lie on the sides of the channels. The ditches to the west have been deepened by erosion. The ditch system cuts the disused peat cutting and is clearly a later feature, mapped on the 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map [1]. SS 70327 40296. An amorphous, stony mound, 2.2 metres in diameter and 0.6 metres high lies between two drainage channels. It contains quartz and an earthfast quartz boulder lies to the west. The mound is most likely to be upcast from cleaning out the drainage channels. SS 70395 40240. A stony, subrectangular mound, 7.5 metres north to south and 5 metres east to west, and up to 1 metre high, lies on the edge of a drainage channel and is most likely to be upcast from cleaning out the channel. SS 70296 40054. A drainage channel runs northwest to southeast for some 350 metres. The ditch is 1.5 metres wide and 0.9 metres deep, with a bank of spoil 1.1 metre wide and 0.6 metres high on its southern side. It probably dates from the late 19th or early 20th Century. The features were mainly thought to be post-medieval in date. [2] The eastern end of the drainage system was recorded by a UAS photogrammetry survey commissioned by the South West Peatland Partnership in advance of peatland restoration work over the winter of 2023 to 2024.[3]