Details

The monument includes a regular aggregate field system situated in a small dry
valley cut into Upper Chalk on Codford Down, a promontory on the southern edge
of Salisbury Plain.
The field system spans both sides of the valley bottom and is orientated from
east to west. It comprises a series of small rectangular fields covering an
area of 35ha, defined by lynchets up to 1.5m high. Aerial photographs show
that this section of field system was once part of a much larger system which
covered the whole of Codford Down. Much of this surrounding area was ploughed
under conditions imposed during World War II.
All fence posts and cattle troughs are excluded from the scheduling, although
the ground beneath these features is included.

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

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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 regular aggregate field system on Codford Down survives well and is an
excellent example of a type of land use which once covered this entire area.
This section is one of the few areas to have survived as unploughed downland
during and since World War II.

Source: Historic England