DOI Artikel:
Parry, M. L.: A typology of cultivation ridges in southern Scotland
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49000#0005
A TYPOLOGY OF CULTIVATION RIDGES
IN SOUTHERN SCOTLAND
By
M. L. Parry
The study of cultivation ridges in Britain has,
in general, focussed more upon their distribu-
tion than upon their morphology and has thus
aspired to 'do little more than direct attention
to some of the broader correlations with other
landscape features’ (Harrison, Mead and Pan-
net, 1965, 366). Ignorance of morphology or
form may have led to past misunderstanding
of the function of cultivation ridges and thus
of their place in the history of change in farm-
ing systems. Yet changes in the form of culti-
vation ridges may be valuable indicators of the
timing of associated and concurrent changes
elsewhere within the farming system. For ex-
ample, the widespread retreat of settlement
and agriculture from British uplands since the
eighteenth century and perhaps even from the
late Middle Ages, has left on the hillsides large
areas of relict cultivation ridges lying under
heather and rough pasture. In such areas the
documentary record is often poor, so that the
dating and explanation of abandonment may
depend upon a study of the relict landscape
evidence and in particular upon the morphol-
ogy of cultivation ridges. Thus the micro-ana-
lytical approach to ridge form developed in
Germany and Sweden could be rewarding
(Hannerberg, 1963). This paper adopts such
an approach to develop a simple typology of
cultivation ridges that will provide a frame-
work for dating the abandonment of farmland
to complement later study of the few surviving
documents.
Problems and Approach
Function of the cultivation ridge. The typo-
logy will assume that the form of cultivation
ridge reflects its function and it is therefore
important to define the raison d'etre of the
ridge. It has been suggested that ridge and
furrow was the product of ploughing with a
fixed mould-board. Such a plough could not
work simply back and forth over the ground
without turning the initial furrow slices onto
unploughed land. It was therefore necessary
for the plough-team to travel in a concentric
pattern around a central starting line, and to
avoid the waste of time and effort in moving
the plough ‘free’ along an everwidening head-
land, the field was divided into a number of
parallel ‘lands’ which were worked concen-
trically into low ridges (Nightingale, 1933;
Ransome, 1867, 93).
A second hypothesis proposed that ridge
and furrow represented strip holdings on me-
dieval open fields, and implied that the ridges
were constructed for the specific purpose of
identifying the strips (Beresford, 1948 and
1950). It was also postulated that the strips
each represented one day’s labour for the
plough-teams (Clark, i960).
However the balance of early and more re-
cent work suggests that the role of ridge and
furrow was essentially one of drainage (Orwin
and Orwin, 1938; Kerridge, 1955; Jackson,
1961). Evidence for this argument rests with
published works on agriculture contemporary
IN SOUTHERN SCOTLAND
By
M. L. Parry
The study of cultivation ridges in Britain has,
in general, focussed more upon their distribu-
tion than upon their morphology and has thus
aspired to 'do little more than direct attention
to some of the broader correlations with other
landscape features’ (Harrison, Mead and Pan-
net, 1965, 366). Ignorance of morphology or
form may have led to past misunderstanding
of the function of cultivation ridges and thus
of their place in the history of change in farm-
ing systems. Yet changes in the form of culti-
vation ridges may be valuable indicators of the
timing of associated and concurrent changes
elsewhere within the farming system. For ex-
ample, the widespread retreat of settlement
and agriculture from British uplands since the
eighteenth century and perhaps even from the
late Middle Ages, has left on the hillsides large
areas of relict cultivation ridges lying under
heather and rough pasture. In such areas the
documentary record is often poor, so that the
dating and explanation of abandonment may
depend upon a study of the relict landscape
evidence and in particular upon the morphol-
ogy of cultivation ridges. Thus the micro-ana-
lytical approach to ridge form developed in
Germany and Sweden could be rewarding
(Hannerberg, 1963). This paper adopts such
an approach to develop a simple typology of
cultivation ridges that will provide a frame-
work for dating the abandonment of farmland
to complement later study of the few surviving
documents.
Problems and Approach
Function of the cultivation ridge. The typo-
logy will assume that the form of cultivation
ridge reflects its function and it is therefore
important to define the raison d'etre of the
ridge. It has been suggested that ridge and
furrow was the product of ploughing with a
fixed mould-board. Such a plough could not
work simply back and forth over the ground
without turning the initial furrow slices onto
unploughed land. It was therefore necessary
for the plough-team to travel in a concentric
pattern around a central starting line, and to
avoid the waste of time and effort in moving
the plough ‘free’ along an everwidening head-
land, the field was divided into a number of
parallel ‘lands’ which were worked concen-
trically into low ridges (Nightingale, 1933;
Ransome, 1867, 93).
A second hypothesis proposed that ridge
and furrow represented strip holdings on me-
dieval open fields, and implied that the ridges
were constructed for the specific purpose of
identifying the strips (Beresford, 1948 and
1950). It was also postulated that the strips
each represented one day’s labour for the
plough-teams (Clark, i960).
However the balance of early and more re-
cent work suggests that the role of ridge and
furrow was essentially one of drainage (Orwin
and Orwin, 1938; Kerridge, 1955; Jackson,
1961). Evidence for this argument rests with
published works on agriculture contemporary