MMO399 - 19th Century water meadow south of Prescott Farm (Monument)

An extensive and complex water meadow irrigation system of probable 19th Century date is visible on aerial photographs as earthworks. It probably closely operated in tandem with a more extensive system associated with Stone Farm.

A water meadow system was seen on aerial photographs dating to 1947 around Lower Prescott Farm. [1,2] Banks and lush marked ditches were noted to extend north and west on aerial photographs. [1,3-4] An extensive and complex water meadow irrigation system of probable 19th Century date is visible on aerial photographs as earthworks to the south of Prescott Farm at circa SS 8588 3913. This is an example of a type of water meadow known as catchwork or field gutter system, commonly found on combe or hill slopes and designed to irrigate pasture by diverting water from a spring or stream. The water is carried along the valley sides via one or more channels or gutters and when irrigation was required the gutters were blocked, causing water to overflow from gutter to gutter, thereby irrigating the slopes. This film of water prevented the ground freezing during the winter and raised the temperature of the grass in the spring, thereby encouraging early growth, particularly important during the hungry gap of March and April. 8 gutters are visible at Prescott, covering 3 hectares of the east and west-facing slopes of a narrow combe to the south of the Farm. For water these tap a spring fed stream, which rises immediately to the north of Prescott Farm. However, gutters continue to the southeast, covering almost the entire hillside between Prescott and Stone, over 500 metres distant. The water meadows of the two holdings were probably constructed as a single operational unit and would have worked in tandem. However this means it is unclear from the aerial photographs alone and without greater knowledge of the extent of the farms holdings, where the division between the two holding's water meadows lays. The unit of record defined here for Prescott is therefore somewhat arbitrary and further work is required for clarification. The gutters are still clearly visible on aerial photographs of 2008. [5-10] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [11]