Details

The constraint area includes the site of a deserted medieval village in the
south and associated cultivation earthworks to the north.
1 - Six strip lynchets on the east side of Middlehill. Although damaged by
ploughing they have a maximum height 2.2m.
2 - The site of a deserted medieval village. Although mutilated in some places
by digging the earthworks are c.1.5m high and in very good condition.
3 - An area of strip lynchets up to 3m in height on the northern slope of
Middlehill. They cover an area of c.3ha.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The most complete and extensive survival of chalk downland
archaeological remains in central southern England occurs on Salisbury
Plain, particularly in those areas lying within the Salisbury Plain
Training Area. These remains represent one of the few extant
archaeological "landscapes" in Britain and are considered to be of
special significance because they differ in character from those in
other areas with comparable levels of preservation. Individual sites on
Salisbury Plain are seen as being additionally important because the
evidence of their direct association with each other survives so well.

Downland Medieval villages surviving as well-preserved earthworks are
rare nationally due to the destructive effects of later cultivation.
The importance of the Middlehill monument is considerably enhanced by
its association with contemporary cultivation earthworks. These
earthworks provide distinctive traces of medieval and earlier
agricultural actvities in Downland areas, and indicate the degree of
intensity of land use and farming practices through time.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Trust for Wessex Archaeology, (1987)
Wiltshire Library & Museum Service, (1987)

Source: Historic England