MEM25595 - Medieval or post medieval peat cutting remains at Ham Allotment (Monument)

Lidar imagery shows an extensive area of hollows on the north side of Ham Allotment, which represent evidence for historic peat cutting. The cuttings are bounded by the northern enclosure boundary of the allotment to the north, Bincombe to the east, the late 19th-century enclosures to the south, and an erosion gully to the west. Most of the peat cuttings are somewhat indistinct, with the occasional sub-rectangular hollow visible, such as one at 290324 140874, which is 10m N/S, 6.5m E/W and up to 1m deep. One area of peat cutting, at 290372 140863, is very clear on the Lidar imagery. It is visible as a rectangular hollow with a drainage channel to the south, with some areas of peat up to 0.3m thick exposed by erosion along this drainage channel. The peat cutting here comprises two conjoined rectangular hollows, 7m N/S, 5m E/W, and 3m N/S, 2m E/W, and up to 0.5m deep. The peat cutting on Ham Allotment is difficult to date from the morphology of the field remains alone. There are documentary references to rights of turbary on Dunkery Hill from the 17th century: a lease for ‘premises in Deane in Cutcombe and turbary on ‘the hill called Duncreye’ 12 December 1612 (Somerset Heritage Centre DD/BW/2/137) and a ‘lease of common of pasture for 50 sheep and liberty once a year to cut and take as many turves as one man can delve in a day on the common of Duncrey’ 27 November 1688 (Somerset Heritage Centre DD/BW/2/383). The documentary evidence suggests that Ham Allotment was enclosed by 1700 (Somerset Heritage Centre DD/BW/2/854) so the turbary on Ham Allotment could pre-date the enclosure and date from the medieval period. It could equally date from the 17th or 18th centuries when Ham Allotment was part of a holding called Langham and Acham, farmed from Bincombe by 1772 (Somerset Heritage Centre DD/BR/ely/14/3).[1][2]