MMO3328 - 19th Century water meadow west of Hinam Farm (Monument)

A possible catch water meadow of probable 19th Century date is visible on aerial photographs as earthworks. The possible water meadow is comprised of just 4 gutters, two of which appear to directly tap a spring-fed stream.

A small water meadow of probable 19th Century date is visible on aerial photographs as earthworks centred at circa SS 8815 2911, approximately 420 metres to the west of Hinam Farm. This is a type of water meadow known as catchwork, catch meadow or field gutter system, commonly found on combe or hill slopes and designed to irrigate pasture by diverting water from a spring or stream. The water is carried along the valley sides via one or more channels or gutters and 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 March and April. The possible water-meadow is comprised of just 4 gutters. Two short gutters of up to 40 metres length appear to directly tap a spring-fed stream. A longer possible gutter, up to 140 metres long, curves sharply across the contours of the combe in a south-easterly direction. Alternatively, this earthwork may in fact be a trackway as partially depicted on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1890, although as water-meadow gutters are frequently reused as tracks once a system has passed out of use, it is difficult to be sure of the features origins. The earthworks are visible on aerial photographs of 1952 but their condition after this point is uncertain and they might have been levelled. [1-4] There is a pond at the upper end of this system which is also shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map [2,5] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [6]