MMO440 - Post-medieval field system northwest of Holcombe Water Farm (Monument)

Earthworks banks defining an extensive field system of probable post-medieval date are visible on aerial photographs and includes narrow ridge and furrow visible within many of the fields. Many of the boundary banks have been levelled.

Field banks and narrow rig ploughing north of Holcombe Water Farm. [1-3] Aerial photographs show that this part of the Brendon Hills (centred at ST 058 347) appears to have been enclosed recently (post 1947), and a pre-enclosure field system is visible. [4] By 1964 the area was enclosed and ploughed [5], an aerial photographic transcription is underway as part of the Exmoor project. A field system of probable post-medieval date can be seen on the north-west facing slope to the north and west of Holcombe Water Farm, centred approximately on SS 05663458. The field system comprises earthwork banks defining irregularly rectilinear fields which cross the slopes in a south-east to north-west orientation. Individual banks can be seen to exceed 400 metres in length, dropping in elevations from 370 metres to 310 metres above Ordnance Datum. Narrow ridge and furrow, probably indicative of 19th century cultivation, can be seen within many of the fields. Unfortunately the aerial photographs on which the narrow ridge and furrow is clearly visible could not be rectified and these earthworks have therefore not been transcribed. Nonetheless, an indication of the density of cultivation can be seen on a limited number of aerial photographs of the 1940s [1]. The field pattern is less regular to the west of the field system. One boundary may define the eastern edge of a trackway or pack-horse road, which appears to continue the line of a road approaching from the direction of Holcombe Water to the south-east. However, although probable, it is not possible to be certain of the contemporaneity of the field system and track without further investigation. In the years following Second World War this area was enclosed and returned to cultivation. By 1976 the field boundaries and ridge and furrow had been almost completely levelled, the exception being the area immediately to the north-east of Holcombe Water Farm. [1,5-8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9]