MMO1734 - Post-medieval water meadow southwest of West Middleton Farm (Monument)

A post-medieval water meadow system is visible on aerial photographs as a series of earthworks. There is no evidence that this system was connected to any nearby farmyards, suggesting that this was a detached system.

A post-medieval water meadow system, known locally as a catchwater meadow is visible on aerial photographs as a series of earthworks to the east of Cowley Farm. Centred at SS 6449 4554, at least four ditches, known as gutters are visible on a fairly steep west facing slope. The gutters vary in length from between 40 to 285 metres in length, and mostly follow the contours of the slope. This series of roughly parallel gutters were used to distribute flowing water across the surface of the meadow, in order to encourage early growth in spring and prevent freezing in winter. There is no evidence that this system was connected to any nearby farmyards, suggesting that this was a detached system, which only distributed water and not liquid manure as fertiliser. The gutters were probably fed from a spring at SS 6472 4571 and drained into an unnamed stream 250 metres to the west. [1-3] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [4]