MSO11443 - Medieval field system west of Little Hill Plantation (Monument)

Enclosures seen on aerial photographs. Banks on Higher Allers forming small enclosures which may be field boundaries. [1-3] Currently under improved pasture. Some lynchetting is visible at SS 9460 4600. [4] The field system is not depicted on the earliest OS mapping of the area. [5] A possible field system is visible on aerial photographs as an earthwork bank or lynchet, to the south of Bratton village at approximately SS 9460 4596, Minehead Without parish. The visible bank follows a very irregular course, following the contour of the hill to the southwest of Little Hill Plantation before turning sharply east to ascend the spur of this hill. At the crest of the hill it doglegs to the north before abutting the extant field boundary on the western edge of Little Hill Plantation. It is probable that the monument as visible on the aerial photographs available to the NMP survey is incomplete, but its irregular and somewhat curvilinear form may support an interpretation as medieval in origin. [6,7]