MMO3605 - Post-medieval water meadow east of Bitter Cleeve Copse (Monument)

A post-medieval water meadow system, known locally as a catchwater meadow, is visible on aerial photographs as a series of earthworks in fields east of Bitter Cleeve Copse, Stogumber. Centred at approximately ST 0757 3544, four gutters are visible running north-south along the contours of an east facing slope above a small un-named stream. The gutters cover an area of some 1.1 hectares, and do not appear to be connected to any local farmyards, suggesting that this was a detached system which only distributed water to the fields and not liquid manure or other fertilisers. A series of approximately parallel gutters were used to distribute flowing water evenly over the surface of the meadow in order to prevent freezing in winter and encourage early growth in spring, thereby providing extra feed for livestock. 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. [1,2]