Medieval farming on the Mendip Hills

Medieval farming landscapes, consisting of hillside cultivation terraces and strip field boundaries, can be seen along the southern slopes of Mendip, extending from Rodney Stoke to East Horrington.  Strip field boundaries are the remains of divisions in a Medieval or Post Medieval system of farming in large, open, fields.  The field boundaries survive as low banks of earth, caused by a build-up of plough soil, lower down the slopes on flatter land.  However, land was also cultivated on the steeper slopes, where platforms were cut into the hillside.  The earth that built up in banks at the edges of the platforms, through repeated ploughing, can be seen on aerial photographs.  These banks are known as strip lynchets.

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