More information : (Area TQ 541025). On the SW spur of the hill Ewe Dene Down is a very remarkable series of cultivation terraces or lynchets of Celtic type. They are scarcely visible on the hill itself but may be best seen from Fore Down, (TQ 5301). The series is continued into Deep Dene (TQ 5302) and over Fore Down into Old Kiln Bottom, (TQ 5401). (1)
Lynchets faintly visible on RAF A/Ps (2)
Lynchets perfectly visible on A/P taken in 1925 with reflected light. (OS 42 853) (Original A/P) (3)
An IA/RB field system as indicated on OS AP 42 853 (1925)centred at TQ 537 024. The pattern of fields is still discernible, being particularly well-preserved on the SW spur, now under rough pasture, in the vicinity of bowl barrows TQ 50 SW 82 B-D, where lynchets survive to an average height of about 1.0m. No definite traces of fields seen in Old Kiln Bottom and Fore Down.
Area of field system delineated on OS 6". (4)
The field system on Ewe Dean Down was first observed on vertical aerial photographs taken for the Ordnance Survey in 1925. Mapping of the earthworks in 2012 for the Beachy Head NMP was largely undertaken using the 1925 photographs, which captured the earthworks under low sunlight with minimal vegetation cover. The lynchets cover the whole of the southwestern half fo the NE-SW orientated spur of the downs - the area known as Ewe Dean (or Dene) Down. The NE half, which comprises Tenantry Ground and Windover Hill, seems to be devoid of any traces of field system. However, further lyncheted fields can be seen continuing adjacent to the steep eastern slopes of Ewe Dean Down, although the two systems are not (apparently) physically connected. Together they cover around 50 hectares. There seems to be a genuine gap between this more easterly set of fields and the lyncheted field system occupying much of Old Kiln Bottom, stlll further to the east.
The 1925 (and later) verticals show the western extermity of the SW end of the spur to be covered in two sizeable blocks of ridge and furrow. The ridge and furrow partly overlies and partly utilises the earthworks of the earlier fields. This area has also seen subsequent plouging, with a sizeable part of the ridge and furrow now levelled for arable.
Three round barrows occur within the field system, one of which occurs at the point where one lynchet abuts the mid-point of another. A fourth barrow, close to the northernmost extent of the field system, sits immediately adjacent to the junction of two lynchets.
There is no clear indication of enclosed settlement within the field systems, but there are some slight changes of direction and gaps in the course of some lynchets which may be worth investigating.
Recent vertical aerial photographs and lidar cover suggest that the bulk of this field system (and its barrows) still survives as earthworks. (5, 6) |