MMO2839 - Post-medieval water meadow on Road Hill (Monument)

A post-medieval water meadow of a type known as catchwork or field gutter system is visible on aerial photographs as earthworks on Road Hill, on the steep southwest facing slopes above the River Exe. Centred approximately on SS 8619 3673 the system is composed of two gutters that are visible following the contours of the combe side for over 700 metres from the spring fed stream that is their source. Such water meadows are typically found on combe or hill slopes and are designed to irrigate pasture by diverting water from a spring or stream along the slope via a series of roughly parallel channels or gutters. When irrigation was required the gutters were blocked, causing water to overflow from gutter to gutter, thereby irrigating the slopes. This film of water prevented the ground freezing during the winter and raised the temperature of the grass in the spring, thereby encouraging early growth, particularly important during the hungry gap of the March and April. It is unclear with which farmstead this system was associated and it may therefore be what is known as a detached system. The gutters also cut the line of, and therefore post date, several earthwork field boundaries of probable medieval or post-medieval date. [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]