More information : A series of cultivation terraces, field banks and lynchets are visible on RAF AP (4283 6 10 25). Centred TQ 537 017. (1)
There are lynchets visible on the west side of Fore Down but generally the cultivation terraces and field banks have been destroyed by forestry work. Typical IA/RB pattern. (2)
Aerial photographs show extensive sereis fo lynchets across Fore Down and Lullington Heath towards Old Kiln Bottom. The full extent could not be mapped because of the extent of vegetation covering the ground iacross much of the area and the unavailability of some key photographs taken in 1925, when parts of the Fore Down area were relatively free of gorse and trees. Consequently it is difficult to confirm any direct connection with the extensive field systems to the north (AMIE uids: 408829; 1571373). A water pipeline cut through the Friston Forest in 2008 in order to supply water to grazing animals cut through 37 lynchets, but only two were recorded archaeologically. However, teh report confirms more extensive lynchet survival than is apparent from aerial photographs alone, the author noting that the lynchets were "spaced at fairly regular intervals along the bottom of the valley, with some showing as quite substantial earthworks extending up the valley sides, whilst others were very discrete earthworks that only showed as slight bumps in the valley bottom...". The limited dating evidence was taken to suggest that the field system may have originated in the Late Bronze Age. Towards its westernmost extent on Fore Down, some of the field boundaries are cut by a curving linear earthwork (AMIE uid: 408776). (3-7)
|