MMO1769 - Medieval or post-medieval field boundary and enclosure north of Cosgates Feet (Monument)

A probable field boundary and rectilinear banked enclosure, both of medieval or post-medieval date, can be seen as earthworks on aerial photographs on the west and north facing slopes of Coscombe, approximately 250 metres to the north of Cosgates Feet or County Gate, Oare parish. The enclosure abuts the course of Coscombe's spring fed stream, enclosing an area of almost 0.5 hectares. These earthworks are crossed by a footpath marked on the 1:2500 First Edition Ordnance Survey map and the enclosure must therefore predate its publication. The function of the enclosure is unclear but it may be part of the same phase of enclosure which encroached onto Cosgate Hill to the west (see MDE11951). It cannot be clearly seen on aerial photographs later than 1952. The field boundary, roughly 65 metres to the north, is more fragmentary in appearance. A length of earthwork abutting an extant boundary, aligned northwest to southeast, approximately 35 metres long and centred on circa SS 7957 4893, remains visible to 1995. Its curvilinear extension to the east echoes the shape of the extant field boundary and relict lynchet (MMO1768) to the south, which may support the suggestion of a medieval date. However, this cannot be clearly seen later than 1952 and may simply be the course of a footpath. [1-4] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [5]