MMO1854 - Post-medieval water meadow to the west of Kipscombe Combe (Monument)

SS 7593 5007 (centre). A series of field gutters for irrigating the pasture survive as earthworks in three former fields and were noted during the survey by the National Trust in 2004 to the north of Kipscombe Farm. There may be the remains of possibly three systems running around the contour on a southeast to northwest to westsouthwest alignment. All the field gutters would originally have been fed from the stream in the combe but there is no surviving evidence of the system linking to the combe. Erosion and slippage downhill, track and later features have removed the evidence. Some of the field gutters appear to be cut or built over by some of the (now removed) field boundaries. This suggests a date of late 18th or early 19th Century as the boundaries are shown on the Tithe Map [1]. The features survive as dips about 0.5 metres wide in the pasture. [2] A post-medieval water meadow, known locally as a catchwater meadow, is visible as a series of earthworks in fields above Kipscombe Combe, Countisbury. Centred at SS 7595 5018, five gutters are visible stretching across two fields on a steep northeast facing slope. The gutters vary in length from 65 to 140 metres,and in width from 1 to 3 metres. Catchwater meadows used a series of approximately parallel gutters to distribute flowing water evenly over the surface of the meadow in order to prevent freezing in winter and encourage early growth in spring. There are no obvious nearby farmsteads, apart from a ruined building (MDE21862), which suggests that this was a detached system, which was not able to distribute liquid manure as fertiliser. Most catchwater meadows are believed to date to the post-medieval period, although it is possible that they were first developed in the medieval period. [3-5] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [6]