Ancient landscapes

[Fourwings]

Our land has been farmed for thousands of years and occasionally we see signs of this in todays landscape.
This photo was taken this morning just as the sun began to rise, the very low light angle clearly shows the early medieval field system known as "ridge and furrow" a feature common to my part of Leicestershire.
This was formed by the constant ploughing of small plots which over long periods of time moved the soil into ridges.
These fields have not been ploughed since and this un-improved pasture is a fantastic wildlife enviroment compared to the more normal cultivated commercial pasture,as no artificial fertiliser is added to it, only the natural kind left behind by the grazing animals.
Ridge and furrow is now a protected feature and permission has to to be sought before any disturbance can take place to it.

[John]

And long may this protection remain. We need all the land we can get to protect wildlife and land like this is a godsend to wildlife.

John

[Tinkerbell]

Lovely pic Fourwings - how long is it since the ridge and furrow practice ceased?

[nightshade]

When I was a child we were told that it was a sign of glacial action, thanks for the pic. now I know.

[Fourwings]

Originally Posted by Tinkerbell

Lovely pic Fourwings - how long is it since the ridge and furrow practice ceased?

Ridge and furrow produced by ploughing with either Oxen or horses is usually pre- 1500 in date. These ridges are quite large and always have a curved or lazy S profile.

The smaller more uniform ridge and furrow that can sometimes be found is produced by Steam ploughing, a Georgian/Victorian system that involved draging a huge plough backwards and forwards on a chain between two traction engines, one at each end of the field.

A really good clue to determining the age of ridge and furrow is to look at it and see if the ridges seem to carry on through the hedges, fences etc.. in some cases even on either side of the road. If this is the case then you are almost certainly looking at the remnants of a Medieval field system.

The more modern steam plough version, will match the existing field boundrys, this is because most hedgerows are a product of the mass enclosure acts of the 1700's, before this time much of the countryside was open with the boundrys between different plots of land being defined by a change in direction of the Ridge and furrow or a much larger ridge called a Baulk or Headland.

[Alan]

I believe the ploughing methods at these times gave rise to the measurement of an 'acre', refering to the amount of land the horse/oxen could plough in a day. The furrows were built up by the practice of going around in one direction so the soil was pushed to the same side which built the familiar furrows up over time.

Alan

[RobF]

Its amazing how high up rigg and furrow can be found in upland areas.

Rob