MMO3154 - Possible post-medieval field boundary on Round Hill (Monument)

Evidence for a possible former field boundary of probable post-medieval date can be seen on aerial photographs as a cropmark and low earthwork on the northwest facing slopes of Round Hill, Molland parish. The possible boundary is approaching 500 metres long, in an L shape orientated roughly north to south and then east to west, with a 90 degree turn almost halfway along its length centred at circa SS 8052 3097. The westernmost section, largely aligned north to south, is visible as a pale cropmark. The east to west orientated eastern section is visible only as a very low earthwork on aerial photographs of 1972, and might now also have been levelled. The possible boundary does not display any clear relationship with the surrounding extant, and probably post-medieval field system, but does not have the characteristically aratral curved profile of medieval field boundaries, and has been interpreted as an earlier post-medieval phase of enclosure. [1,2] The boundary is not depicted on the Tithe Map for Molland nor on the 1st or 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey maps and presumably predates these documents. [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]