The mystery of the earthworks in the wood

Acton Scott Common 1776 (image) [+]
This extract from the Sherriff map of 1776 shows Acton Scott Common before it had been enclosed. The triangular angle of the common partly surveyed by the ASHP team can be seen centre right above the letter "D" of Glebeland. Within 40 years the common ha...

One Friday morning in late April, a small team comprising Phil Scoggins, Hugh Hannaford, and three volunteers Ian Dormor, Dave Carter and Phil Cawood, gathered at Acton Scott Village Hall car park to investigate mysterious banks and ditches in the adjacent wood-land.
The main aim was to examine their nature, extent and significance before tree cover made it too difficult, using a combination of traditional surveying and GPS (Global Positioning System). GPS uses orbiting American satellites (the “Star Wars” system set up for military use) to accurately record, via a back pack receiver and hand held computer, archaeological features on the ground to an accuracy of at least 1 metre and up to 10cm. At least three satellites must be locked on to via a base station, the receiver picking up signals from the satellites as bleeps. As their position at a given time is known, the time interval between the signal and its reception allows the three dimensional position of points on the ground (latitude, longitude and elevation) to be established. Unfortunately heavy cloud, steep terrain and tree cover can stop or distort the signal and Hugh was concerned that the trees, although still leafless, would restrict its use. As a back up more traditional survey methods using tapes and ranging rods were also employed.
The first task was to determine the extent of the earthworks. They were bounded by the 18th century road to the west and pasture next to the farm to the east where a broad ditch was also visible. The car park had destroyed any traces to the north apart from a fragment in one corner beyond which ploughing had destroyed any vestige in the field to the north on the site of the former Common. The south side was bounded by the ponds and stream leading towards the Hall.
These boundaries were measured and marked up on the base map, then the earth works were examined in detail. Hugh was pleasantly surprised that the GPS signal was quite good and walking down the line of the banks a reassuring bleep from the screen meant that a series of points could be joined up to show a line of very roughly parallel banks. This might be indicative of the characteristic “reversed S” look of ridge and furrow produced by medieval ploughing, our favourite theory for the earthworks.
The other half of the team was measuring transects across the earthworks at 10m intervals with the aid of tapes and ranging rods – not an easy task given the tick undergrowth. Many calls of “jump up and down and waggle your stick about” punctuated the air, no doubt to alarm of any locals within earshot!

Survey of earthworks in wood behind Acton Scott village hall (image) [+]
This area of woodland was surveyed by the Acton Scott Heritage Project in April 2008. The earthworks probably represent hollow ways created by the movement of animals off the common down to the main road at a time before the site was planted with trees.

The plotted results were certainly puzzling. Although very roughly parallel, the banks seemed too wide, disjointed and irregular to be ridge and furrow. The intervening ditches were also rather deep and boggy especially those close to the pond at the foot of the slope. The bogginess and increasingly thick vegetation was making surveying very difficult. Since we had neglected to include jungle boots and machetes amongst our equipment, and with uneasy thoughts about voracious leeches forming in our minds, it was decided to call it a day. Fortunately by using both traditional methods and GPS virtually the entire site had been surveyed in one form or another.
The team then compared the results with map evidence, especially the James Sheriff map of the 1770s. The earthworks are in an area that once formed a “corner” of the Common. This corner might be compared to the shape of a cake icing bag and with much the same type of function as it would have allowed cattle to be “squeezed” off the common and marshaled to an exit near the pond at the bottom of the slope. Cattle following this route over many years would have eroded sinuous “hollow ways” separated by banks forming a wide tract of disturbed ground. This would account for the irregular nature of the earthworks, although it remains a possibility that the area had ridge and furrow before it was used as common and that this had later been “warped” by animal use. When the land became Common is unknown but it could typically have been after the Black Death when a lower population meant that less land was needed for arable use. However the slope is a fairly steep one and arable cultivation could never have been very satisfactory. Not long after the common land was enclosed at the start of the 19th Century this odd corner of it became the site where new north-south and east-west roads formed a crossroads whilst the remainder was planted with trees. This plantation had the unintended effect of preserving the evidence of its former use. The team left satisfied that for once survey results, cartographic analysis and documentary evidence seemed to support each other.

Phil Cawood 11.5.08