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.
Details
The monument includes an extensive field system of Bronze Age date situated on
a gently sloping saddle of land between Hart Heugh and Fredden Hill. The field
system comprises at least 40 clearance cairns, banks and lynchets which define
irregular field plots. In addition, there are at least two burial cairns.
The field system stretches for several hundred metres and is characterised
by sub-rectangular fields and a scatter of field clearance cairns. The fields
measure an average 25m by 35m and are defined by slight earthen banks and
lynchets which stand to a maximum height of 0.25m. Although slight, the field
system was fully surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1967. The clearance
cairns are clearly visible as turf-covered mounds of earth and stone ranging
in size from 1m to 6m in diameter and standing up to 0.6m high. Two cairns are
more substantial than those surrounding them and are intepreted as burial
cairns. The first measures about 11m in diameter and stands 1.25m high with
kerb stones visible around its outer edge. The centre is disturbed, probably
the result of an unrecorded antiquarian investigation in the 19th or 20th
century. A second burial cairn lies at the extreme south of the monument and
measures 4.6m in diameter by 0.75m high with kerb stones visible around part
of its perimeter.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
31708
Legacy System:
RSM
End of official list entry
