MEM24555 - Post-medieval drive in Yearnor Wood (Monument)

A drive runs along the boundary of Yearnor Wood, descending to run along the side of Culbone Combe and reching Culbone Lodge west of the church, where a path to Ash Farm continues under a tunnel. It possibly dates to the 1840s.

A drive from the entrance to Yearnor Wood east of Yearnor (Drive 2) runs along the boundary of the woods with the enclosed farmland to the west. It descends to run along the side of Culbone Combe and reaches Culbone Lodge west of the church where a path to Ash Farm continues under a tunnel. This drive is characterised by the presence of retaining walls along much of its course. A good example is at the junction of this drive with a path at SS 85219 48102. Here, the drystone wall, built of pitched, small stone blocks, is 1.4 metres high and the level drive is 2.5 metres wide. Before the path leaves the edge of the farmland and turns to descend through the woods, it is flanked by drystone retaining walls with bare rock outcrops on the upslope side. The presence of several yew trees on the edge of the drive here serve to emphasise this point on the drive. The upslope retaining wall is 0.8 metres high, the level drive is 2.5 metres wide and the downslope drystone wall is 2 metres wide and 0.7 metres high. Between Viewpoint 2 (MEM24553) and Culbone, Drive 2 is characterised by the presence of a bare rock outcrop on the upslope side, 100 metres long and over 3 metres high and the level drive is 2.4 metres wide. The junction of Drive 2 with a path up to Ash Farm is marked by a retaining wall 7 metres long and 0.6 metres high. The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map [1] shows most but not all of the 19th Century drives and paths between Ashley Combe and Culbone; the tunnels are also depicted on the map. Documentary evidence suggests that the drives were laid out in the 1840s and perhaps largely completed by the early 1850s, when Lord King travelled abroad following his wife’s death in 1852. [2]