MEM23342 - 19th Century drainage ditches near Pinkery Farm (Monument)

This feature belongs to a collection of earthworks which were previously interpreted as a prehistoric field system and associated burial mound (see MSO10133). These have been analysed and reinterpreted as a complex of drainage channels. To ensure the record is clear, child records have been created for each feature and linked to the parent record for the whole complex (MSO10133) where full details of the progression of interpretation can be seen. [1] Field investigation in 2013 noted a channel, 0.9 metres wide and 0.7 metres deep, with an intermittent bank on the downslope side measuring 0.9 metres wide and 0.6 metres high. This runs northeast-southwest for 70 metres at the west end of an area of silted up drainage ditches (MEM23336 to MEM23340). It turns sharply at the southwest end to run for a further 20 metres. A silted up drainage ditch runs north-south for 50 metres to the south of this and a second silted up drainage ditch runs northeast-southwest across the northwest side of the main channel. These channels took the water from the nearby long southwest-northeast drains (MEM23336 to MEM23340) and channelled it away from the spur into the Barle and its tributary stream. It may be contemporary with the drainage ditches and date from 1849-50 when George Groves farmed part of Pinkery from Driver Cott. [2]