Pen Meadow Earth Work Survey

The whole of Pen Meadow was surveyed, as shown in the image on the left. The earthworks have been shown using the standard convention of ‘hachures’ – i.e. lines with the thick end indicating the top of slope and the thin end marking the bottom of the slope. The survey revealed the presence of a series of banks that appear to be the remnants of an old strip lynchet system in the part of Pen Meadow nearest the High Street. The way they peter out suggests that the headland to these strips lay across the meadow (N-S) at this point. This area was used for sheep pens for the Sheep Fairs during the 19th & 20th C. On the southern edge of the meadow, the shallow bank coincides with the boundary of a cottage (long since demolished) that was shown on the 1831 map (plots 110 & 111). The other banks coincide with field boundaries also shown on that map.