Field system on Hazel Down 850m north of Hazeldown Farm

Reasons for Designation

Regular aggregate field systems date from the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC) to the end of the fifth century AD. They usually cover areas of up to 100ha and comprise a discrete block of fields orientated in roughly the same direction, with the field boundaries laid out along two axes set at right angles to one another. Individual fields generally fall within the 0.1ha-3.2ha range and can be square, rectangular, long and narrow, triangular or polygonal in shape. The field boundaries can take various forms (including drystone walls or reaves, orthostats, earth and rubble banks, pit alignments, ditches, fences and lynchets) and follow straight or sinuous courses. Component features common to most systems include entrances and trackways, and the settlements or farmsteads from which people utilised the fields over the years have been identified in some cases. These are usually situated close to or within the field system. The development of field systems is seen as a response to the competition for land which began during the later prehistoric period. The majority are thought to have been used mainly for crop production, evidenced by the common occurrence of lynchets resulting from frequent ploughing, although rotation may also have been practised in a mixed farming economy. Regular aggregate field systems occur widely and have been recorded in south western and south eastern England, East Anglia, Cheshire, Cumbria, Nottinghamshire, North and South Yorkshire and Durham. They represent a coherent economic unit often utilised for long periods of time and can thus provide important information about developments in agricultural practices in a particular location and broader patterns of social, cultural and environmental change over several centuries. Those which survive well and/or which can be positively linked to associated settlements are considered to merit protection.

The field system on Hazel Down 850m north of Hazeldown Farm is a well preserved example of its class. It will contain archaeological deposits providing information about Iron Age and Romano-British settlement, economy and environment.

Details

The monument includes the surviving part of an Iron Age and Romano-British field system lying on the steep northern slopes of Hazel Down, 850m north of Hazeldown Farm.

The field system comprises a series of rectangular fields, between 0.2ha and 0.6ha in overall size. The individual fields are defined by lynchets running along the contours, up to 3m high, and by field banks up to 2m high, running down the slope. A trackway defined by two lynchets runs up the slope between lynchets at the eastern end of the site. A section of a similar double lynchet track can be seen on aerial photographs running along the top of the slope further west.

On the level hilltop are a series of shallow circular depressions up to 8m in diameter. Prehistoric and Romano-British pottery occurs in dark soils associated with these depressions, which are interpreted as hut platforms representing an area of settlement associated with the field system.

The monument is part of a more extensive field system covering an area of about 2.5km, extending to the west and south. However, to the south, on more level ground, the individual field elements lack cohesion, and to the west the fields have been levelled by ploughing and are no longer visible on the surface. These areas are therefore not included in the scheduling.

All fence posts, telegraph poles and drinking troughs are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

33851

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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