Ridge and furrow on my doorstep.

Ridge and furrow, what is it?

I have detected on many ridge and furrow fields, with very little success.

It always gets the blood flowing when you turn up to a dig and see those ancient markings in a field. It sends out a message that this land has been used throughout history and therefore finds will be abundant. Well I am sure that this will be the case for some people, but I have never had such luck, in fact I avoid the R&F fields when I go on a dig.

Now the town I live in grew up around the coal mining industry, I know little about what occurred here prior to mining fever taking hold. I know the A5 runs through one side of the town, with a famous Roman landmark being only 4 or 5 miles up the road.

But that’s it to my Knowledge; I know little else about its history. I follow a great blog by Brownhills Bob Here which I am sure contains some information about pre mining Brownhills. Once I have posted this blog I will have a trawl through the many great maps and post Bob has on the subject.

I have detected on a patch of wasteland on and off over the last 20 odd years and found a fair few bits and bobs. Part of the land had ridge and furrow characteristics which I had noted, but never thought about investigating further.

Today I had a trawl over Google earth and spotted how prominent the markings looked. Here is an image of the R&F from my screenshot.

Below is an extract from Wikipedia relating to R&F.

Ridge and furrow is an archaeological pattern of ridges (Medieval Latin sliones) and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open field system. Other names for this are reans (or reeans) and butts - the rean being the furrow between two butts. Field names using rean exist on Tithe maps. It is also known as Rig and furrow agriculture, mostly in the North East of England.[1]

The earliest examples date to the immediate post-Roman period and the system was used until the 17th century in some areas, as long as the open field system survived. Surviving ridge and furrow topography is found in Great Britain, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. The surviving ridges are parallel, ranging from 3 to 22 yards (3 to 20 m) apart and up to 24 inches (61 cm) tall – they were much taller when in use. Older examples are often curved.

Ridge and furrow topography was a result of ploughing with non-reversible ploughs on the same strip of land each year. It is visible on land that was ploughed in the Middle Ages, but which has not been ploughed since then. No actively ploughed ridge and furrow survives.

The ridges or lands became units in landholding, in assessing the work of the ploughman and in reaping in autumn.[2] Strips were sometimes known as quillets such as those on the Tithe Map of Erbistock in Denbighshire.

Image below from Wiki, page found Here

Ridge and furrow in Cold Newton,Leicestershire

Here is an extract from British Archaeology web site the poo poo’s my theories to some extent.

Text taken from Here.

Not all surviving ridges relate to pre-enclosure fields. There are two other types that commonly occur, both dating from the 19th century. Wide ridges were sometimes ploughed within enclosed fields, again for reasons of drainage; they are distinguished from open-field ridges in being generally straight, rather wider (often 20m), not so steep and always parallel to at least one field hedge. An outside furrow going all round the field completed the ploughing technique. Good examples survive at Naseby in Northamptonshire (they can be seen from the A14), and other examples are known in Kent.
Another type of 19th century ploughing, most common around Manchester and in Cheshire, has very narrow ridges, 2m - 3m wide. The narrowness distinguishes them from pre-enclosure types; they too fit within present-day hedged fields.
Historical records, particularly open-field maps and detailed ridge-by-ridge surveys amplified by lists of open-field orders or regulations, reveal much interesting information about ridge and furrow. The scattered distribution of strips across a township was often managed in a regular pattern, so that if there were 40 yardlands in each township, a ridge belonging to one farm would be placed at every 40th position, and the farmer would always have the same people farming the ridges either side.

Ridge and furrow is generally regarded as `medieval' but the age of surviving remnants is strictly the date when they were last ploughed, that is when a township was enclosed. For many Midland places this was in the period 1730 - 1840, with examples known as late as 1895 and 1901. Away from the Midlands enclosure was usually much earlier.

The ridge and Furrow i have been looking at does not appear to have any hedge boundaries, which may point to it being early. This is something i will have to investigate further though.
It would be nice to be able to pin some history to those markings.
I will post a follow up to this very soon.

Best regards.

Help, i can't find anything with my metal detector!!!

A question I find myself screaming into the cold and wet morning air as I walk my dogs.

Yes there are over 100 flood warnings out there, and yes the coming weekend is going to be very wet.

This doesn’t always mean bad news for the detectorist, though the same can’t be said for farmers. Poor farmer Giles is unable to seed those fields as he can’t get on them; poor fellow, his tractor will sink.

This year I have noticed there are lots of stubble fields still waiting for the farmer’s attention. This is something that is increasingly irritating farmers as their income is taking a bath along with their land.

My advice is to go and see that farmer who has refused you several times over the last few years and ask him again. This time be armed with a £5 ready to put under his nose. It’s not a lot of money in the great scheme of things, but just might tip the scales in your favour.

Remember he is losing money on that field each day he can’t seed it. He is like anyone else trying to earn a living, give him an opportunity and he will take it.

So go put your rain coat on and pop off to that farm that as always tempted you. Have a chat with the landowner and wave the fiver. It could be the start of a beautiful relationship for you and your detector.

Good luck to you all, and if this post inspires you to go door knocking please let me know how it goes.

Two weeks on a whore of a field. Paid feilds for metal detecting at your leisure.

THE WHORE AND A BETROTHAL SEAL.

After developing a rain induced bout of "cabin fever", i decided that i would go detecting. My idea was to visit a farm not far from my home, where the farmer charges £5 for a day of detecting (a gauranteed yes).

Now if these fields where human and had a name, they would be "Sticky Vicky" from Benidorm. They have had more men...and women paying to get on them than Vicky could ever dream of.

Anyway, my mind wanders…..

I had mentioned on a forum that I was going go to one of my detecting buddies.  He was one of the few that lived close to me from the clodhoppers club. Lets Call him Smudge for old times sake. Smudge said he wouldn’t mind coming along, so the arrangements were made.

We met on a McDonald’s car park after a 5 minute drive from home.The McDonalds lies next to one of the fields. I took Smudge a ride around the farmers land in my Saab to give him an idea of the land available (those tracks were awful).  We happened across some fields that were ploughed (still some parsnips in them), adjacent to a stubble field which is where we decided to put coil to soil.

It’s always a good idea to do some research on your land; however I have to confess i didn't as I knew a lot about this land from conversations with other detectorists. There used to be a pond on this part of the land where medieval farmers would take their cattle for water.The pond had been filled some 300 years ago. A lot of finds have come from here, including a fair few hammered.

Well, we had about 3 hours on here and found not much more than a few buttons. The rain had heavily waterlogged the ground which I believed was reducing the depth the Deus was working at. We could clearly see where the pond had once been, however it was deep mud and not navigable.

We then moved allong to a field next to the busy A5. This proved to be a rewarding decision. Within 1 hour I had my first and only hammered silver coin. It was an Edward I 1273 I think (don't mind being corrected). It was not in great condition as it has sustained some damage, but recognisable none the less. Smudge had found a Saxon strap end, which he was made up about. I have never found one and would be delighted if i ever did. About 2 hours in I had one of my favourite ever finds. It was a 12^{th _} 13^th century "betrothal seal", in great condition. This is yet to be confirmed, a knowledgeable colleague gave me the identification. Smudge wasn't doing bad either, to follow his strap end, he had a large Roman grot.

The clouds were quickly closing in with rain forecast. After a quick conversation we called it a day. We made a run for it at about 3.30pm which was just in time to avoid yet another deluge. I managed to ground my car on the way off the track which is a risk we detectorists take on our adventures. Smudge had a SUV which handled the muddy tracks with ease.

TWO PEOPLE FACING EACH OTHER AND SHEILD BELOW, LEDGEND AROUND EDGE.

BETROTHAL SEAL THE CORRECT WAY UP.

NIBBLED BY TIME, BUT PORTRAIT STILL VISABLE.

EDDY I THINK.

During the following week, my son had expressed a interest and wanted to come along with me on the Saturday.

The weather forecast was dreadful for the whole weekend. The only light at the end of the tunnel was a few hours on Saturday morning. According to BBC weather there was a possability of a break in our part of the world.

Again we met on the McDonalds car park; I only had coffee…..Honest. We decided to firstly put coil to soil on the field that yielded the betrothal seal. This time I had a George ii half penny not long after we started. My son had a Roman grot possibly a minim. I had a further two George ii one was a penny and the other possibly a farthing. My son had a coin which we suspected was a George ii half penny. He then unearthed an oak leaf pendant, sadly there was no decoration left on it. I had a mysterious Korean cut half coin. One of my forum friends Wayne had said that he might go so my mind was on venturing off to find him.

I stupidly decided we should head across country to a field where I had previously found two Bronze Age arrow heads circa 2000bc, and a few flint tools. The rain had saturated these fields, they were a quagmire which was pulling us down like quick sand. It was exhausting just to try and move 10 meters. We soon put the white flag up and headed for the safety of a stubble field.

NOT A GREAT IMAGE OF MY TWO BRONZE ARROW HEADS.

 It was about 1.30pm, we had met wayne and his buddy had a chat and moved off. As we crossed the stubble field we noticed the sky becoming very dark indeed. I had a chat with the farmer as he drove past and asked him about a field where a Roman building had been discovered. He confirmed that he owned it and it was in stubble. We jumped into the car and headed off to the said field.

As we disembarked from the car I stated to my son that we had less than a hour to work this field as the clouds were quickly filling the sky. Unfortunately we had only made it to the other side of the field before we were startled by a huge flash of lightening. Now I am no pussy, but standing in the middle of a field with a metal detector during a lightening storm is not a good idea. We headed at a pace towards the car, accompanied by numerous flashes of lightening. I had a cracking signal as we were heading off and stopped to dig it. Again it was a Georg ii half penny. We made it to the car with 30 seconds to spare as the heavens opened. It actually hailed for about 5 minutes making the roads lethal. The rain then set in and put an end to any hopes of extending our day.

Considering these fields are complete and utter whores that have been done to death, they still come up with goodies.

For £5 I get a days entertainment without any hassle driving around door knocking.

FINDS FROM A THUNDERY DAY.

These fields are open to anyone. I would recommend if you have no permissions of your own, and your not too far away, give them a go. Even if its just to practice with your new machine. Or may be to release yourself from a rain nduced bout of cabin feaver.

God bless.