MSO6927 - Post-medieval catchwater meadow at Simonsbath Barton (Monument)

A water meadow system is visible on aerial photography around Simonsbath Barton. [1, 2] A leat is shown on the 1904 and 1962 Ordnance Survey maps as coming from Lime Combe. [3, 4] The leat from Lime Combe is only partly shown on the 1980 Ordnance Survey map. [5] A post-medieval water meadow system, known locally as a catchwater meadow, is visible on aerial photographs as a series of earthworks in fields south of Simonsbath Barton, Exmoor. This is centred at approximately SS 7682 3928, the majority of the gutters stretch across two fields immediately south of Simonsbath Barton, on a fairly steep south facing slope above the River Barle. To the north, a leat is visible coming from Lime Combe, which presumably fed water to the system. This leat appears to pass through the yard at Simonsbath Barton, indicating that this may have been an integrated system which also distributed liquid manure as fertiliser to the fields. Most of the Exmoor ‘improvement farms’ constructed in the mid 19th Century have some form of water meadow system. The land agent, Robert Smith, was considered an expert in water meadows, and constructed a great number of them within the former Royal Forest. [2, 6-9] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [10]