Alongside the river this common land was ploughed in the same ridges each year by families creating the humps that can be seen today.
The stripes are evidence of medieval ‘common field’ systems of local farming. The land here was divided into strips. Local families without land of their own hand farmed each strip. Usually each field had a different crop which was rotated, a trick which helps keep the soil healthy.
Did you know the measurement ‘acre’ means as much land as can be ploughed in one day?
Credit for Ridge and Furrow field photographs to Katharine McElligott, and for the Butterfly Identifier to illustrator Corinne Welch and The Wildlife Trusts