Scheduled Monument: Field System 200m South East of Longley Cottage (1018080)

EXTRACT FROM ENGLISH HERITAGE'S RECORD OF SCHEDULED MONUMENTS MONUMENT: Field system 200m south east of Longley Cottage PARISH: KELSALL DISTRICT: CHESTER COUNTY: CHESHIRE NATIONAL MONUMENT NO: 30375 NATIONAL GRID REFERENCE(S): SJ52947008 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT The monument includes a system of terraces, known as lynchets and associated enclosures on the northern end of a ridge which passes to the west of Longley Farm. The lynchets run across the slope, between 25m and 50m apart, forming terraces 100m to 150m long. The fourth and fifth lynchets from the bottom have earthwork enclosures attached to the lower edges of the terraces forming platforms which may have been smaller cultivated areas surrounding a house site. On the south east side the lynchets have been ploughed away and are barely visible. These terraces are the result of ploughing strips across the slope, degrading the upper part and accumulating soil on the lower part of each strip. Such field systems can be attributed to a Romano-British or early medieval farming technique. ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE Regular aggregate field systems date from the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC) to the end of the fifth century AD. They usually cover areas of up to 100ha and comprise a discrete block of fields orientated in roughly the same direction, with the field boundaries laid out along two axes set at right angles to one another. Individual fields generally fall within the 0.1ha-3.2ha range and can be square, rectangular, long and narrow, triangular or polygonal in shape. The field boundaries can take various forms (including drystone walls or reaves, orthostats, earth and rubble banks, pit alignments, ditches, fences and lynchets) and follow straight or sinuous courses. Component features common to most systems include entrances and trackways, and the settlements or farmsteads from which people utilised the fields over the years have been identified in some cases. These are usually situated close to or within the field system. The development of field systems is seen as a response to the competition for land which began during the later prehistoric period. The majority are thought to have been used mainly for crop production, evidenced by the common occurrence of lynchets resulting from frequent ploughing, although rotation may also have been practised in a mixed farming economy. Regular aggregate field systems occur widely and have been recorded in south western and south eastern England, East Anglia, Cheshire, Cumbria, Nottinghamshire, North and South Yorkshire and Durham. They represent a coherent economic unit often utilised for long periods of time and can thus provide important information about developments in agricultural practices in a particular location and broader patterns of social, cultural and environmental change over several centuries. Those which survive well and/or which can be positively linked to associated settlements are considered to merit protection. The field system remains 200m south east of Longley Cottage are unusual and important as few comparable examples survive in this area of England. The field system with its lynchets and house platforms survive well despite the actions of later ploughing in the south eastern quarter. The terraces stand up to 2m high in places and the earthwork divisions of the smaller enclosures are clearly visible. MONUMENT INCLUDED IN THE SCHEDULE ON 29th April 1998