Irregular Fields on Countisbury Common, Kipscombe Farm, Countisbury, Watersmeet

Summary

Situated to the W of the enclosed fields of Kipscombe Farm are a series of banked enclosures either side of the Lighthouse road. They do not seem to constitute a coherent group of fields and may represent temporary ‘rye-break’, created in the medieval period for use of common land for one season, and abandoned.

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Description

First surveyed by D and C Thackray in 1986.
On the northern slopes of Barna Barrow, to the west of the modern enclosed fields of Kipscombe Farm are fragments of banked enclosures on either side of Lighthouse road. They do not appear to belong to a coherent and continuous group pf early fields, such as those between ' Countisbury Church and The Foreland (100,262). They may well be traces of the small temporary enclosures known as "Rye -breaks" created in medieval and later periods to allow one crop to be taken from an area enclosed from the common for just one season.

Situated to the W of the enclosed fields of Kipscombe Farm are a series of banked enclosures either side of the Lighthouse road. They do not seem to constitute a coherent group of fields and may represent temporary ‘rye-break’, created in the medieval period for use of common land for one season, and abandoned. They appear to be more extensive than originally mapped in 1986, especially in the area between Kipscombe and Coddow Combe, but visibility is dependent upon vegetation cover, and in places this is thick gorse and bracken. Except for a small rectangular enclosure, none of the features are shown on the historic map sequences.

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