NHER 38231 (Monument record) - Post medieval ditches, ridge and furrow earthworks

1936. Aerofilms air photographs.
Siltland edge between Puny Drain and River Nar.
Pattern of linear features, recorded on NCM map by R. R. Clarke (NCM). Features look very similar to medieval strip fields at Elm, Cambs. Original photographs not seen.
A. Gregory (NAU), 4 February 1980.

However the south end of the area of markings visible on OS air photograph 1988 is very different from how Clarke has drawn it on the map, yet similar enough to show they are the same markings. Perhaps Clarke's photograph was not clear. Copy of Ordnance Survey print in file.
B. Cushion and E. Rose (NLA), June 1994.

June 2003. NMP.
The eastern side of this site was formerly part of NHER 15867. The area is divided by a series of north to south aligned ditches, forming relatively narrow strips of land. A series of relatively narrow ridge and furrow type features are visible within the strips of land, also aligned in a north to south direction. It is not possible to determine whether the ditches truncate the ridge and furrow type earthworks, although it is suggested that this is not the case. These features probably served the purpose of both land division and drainage, and the ridge and furrow style features possibly also represent an agricultural tactic to combat the waterlogged conditions. A similar situation can be seen elsewhere on reclaimed saltmarsh. This is not ridge and furrow in the medieval sense, but more akin to lazybedding. At the eastern end of the site, situated within a narrow strip of land bounded by two ditches, is a circular ring ditch (TF 6127 1691), with a maximum diameter of 13m (S1). The ditch is narrow, and appears to have a slightly raised, level interior, with an approximately circular depression at its centre. There are the possible traces of a second circular feature to the south-east (TF 6131 1688), although this only has a potential maximum diameter of 8.5m (S1). There are also the possible traces of two further features to the east (S1), and one to the west at approximately TF 6111 1683 (S3) although these interpretation are not certain, and these features have not been mapped. These are probably stack bases (S2), designed to protect and keep fodder or foodstuffs above the waterlogged ground.
This area was probably not enclosed until the Post-medieval period, and all these features are like to date from that time. An earlier date cannot be ruled out, although the accumulation of silt in the are may preclude a Roman date, often proposed for the circular stack base type features in the Fend (S2).
M. Brennand (NMP), 10 June 2003.

October 2011.
Google earth images suggest these features have been ploughed level.
K. Powell (HES), 14 October 2011.