Ridge and furrow

The term ridge and furrow is often used by archaeologists to describe the pattern of peaks and troughs created in a field from a system of ploughing used during the Middle Ages. Early examples date to the immediate post-Roman period and the method survived until the seventeenth century in some areas.

The phenomenon was created as a result of the strip cultivation that was widely practised at the time whereby large fields were divided into long, narrow plots called furlongs. A furlong is nowadays defined 1/8th of a mile and is a unit of measurement still found in horse racing today. It originally derived from the Old English words for a 'furrow length' and was then taken to mean a length of ploughing across an acre of land and so its exact value would vary dependant on local constraints.

History

Each strip would be cultivated separately by different families who would turn the ploughed soil into the centre of their strip by the continued use of a non-reversing plough, creating over many years raised ridges bounded by deep furrows . The turning of the plough at each end of the strip created the shape in plan of an elongated S-shape. Modern ploughing regimes are more efficient and deeper cutting, removing these features but In cases where cultivation ended or livestock farming was adopted, this rippled effect is still visible today in the landscape. As a result it is useful evidence of past land-use and can occasionally indicate the sites of Deserted Medieval Villages.

Locations

Some of the best preserved ridge and furrow survives in the southern Midlands of England in the counties of Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. The ridge and furrow can have a height difference of between 18-24 inches in places and give a strongly rippled effect to the fieldscape.

Related forms

• rig and furrow,
• lazy beds,
• cord rig and
• run rig cultivation.
• Lynchets create a similar effect but are created by gravity on hillslopes subject to ploughing.