MMO2458 - Undated cropmark northeast of Combe Farm (Monument)

A cropmark visible on aerial photographs may represent the corner of a former field boundary. However, as the crop mark lies on a different alignment to the extant fields, it may belong to a possibly medieval or even prehistoric enclosure.

A cropmark visible on aerial photographs in a field immediately northeast of Combe Farm may represent the corner of a former field boundary. Centred at ST 0088 4071, the crop mark is aligned approximately northeast to southwest, and appears to form a right angle corner. The northeastern side measures some 65 metres long, while the southwestern side measures 35 metres. The cropmark is cut by the extant field boundaries, and there is no trace of it in the adjacent fields. Combe Farm is known to date to the 17th Century, although it was extensively remodelled in the 19th Century, and it is possible that the cropmark represents an earlier boundary of the farm. There is no indication of a field boundary at this location on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1888, suggesting it had been abandoned some time prior to this date. Given that the crop mark lies on a different alignment to the extant fields, the possibility that it may belong to an earlier enclosure, possibly medieval or even prehistoric, cannot be ruled out. [1-3]