MMO1705 - 19th Century water meadow along Badgeworthy Water (Monument)

A catchwork water meadow carriage channel, also known locally as a gutter or a headmain, is visible on aerial photographs as an earthwork running south to north along the eastern side of Badgeworthy Water combe, Oare parish, for over 2 kilometres, centred on circa SS 7979 4615. The gutter is fed from a stream, the source of which is a spring on Stowey Allotment to the southeast. As it travels northwards the channel descends between 320 and 310 metres above Odnance Datum, until it meets Farm Combe at circa SS 799 468. Subsidiary catch drains are visible on the lower slopes at circa SS 795 464. The headmain is marked on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1890 but the subsidiary catch drains are not, and the whole water meadow complex is probably of 19th Century date. As part of post Second World War agricultural enclosure and improvements the headmain has been partly ploughed out by 1995. [1-4] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [5]