MMO1768 - Medieval lynchets northeast of County Gate (Monument)

Three lynchets of probable medieval date are visible on aerial photographs as curvilinear earthworks, approximately 400 metres to the northeast of County Gate, Oare parish. Descending the steep north facing slopes above Manor Wood, the individual lynchets are centred on circa SS 7969 4879, SS 7957 4885 and SS 7994 4893. The earthworks are located in cultivated arable fields and have been somewhat damaged by the plough. Consequently they are rather broad in appearance and are particularly poorly defined to their eastern ends. They probably represent a phase of agricultural reclamation during the medieval period, superseded in the post-medieval period by more regularly shaped field boundaries, as seen in both extant and relict form (see MMO1646). [1,2] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [3]