Bourne Archive:
BAEM:
http://boar.org.uk/ghiwxs7BAEM(pic5Dyke.htm Latest edit 11 Jun
2010.
Text, page
and picture ©R.J.PENHEY 2010.
The Bourne Archive Gallery
This is a
detail, covering the area of the main street of Dyke, in Bourne Parish, taken
from the Bourne Abbots Estate Map
of 1825.
Car
Dyke Car
Dyke Nutto Field Moor Field
The contrast in the picture here is enhanced to reveal what in the map
itself, is often very faint.
The parish of Bourne
had been managed as three townships, each with its set of open fields; one set
each for Bourne, Cawthorpe and Dyke. The Bourne township
was much the largest and was de facto,
divided between Eastgate, The Austerby and the township known as Bourne but it
had one large field system.
Key: The blue strip is the Car Dyke. The reddish brown strip is the public
street. The yellowish brown strips are boundaries of open fields: Moor Field to the north,
Nutto
Field to the south, Wath
Field to the east and Dyke
Haws adjoining the Car Dyke. Of the buildings, the houses are hatched and
the outhouses are stippled. The numbered plots in very pale pink are held
copyhold of the manor of Bourne Abbots and those marked Co. Ex. are copyhold of
the manor of Bourne (the estate of the Marquis of Exeter). Sarah Phillips’
field to the south-west is copyhold partially of one manor and partially of the
other. Those marked F. are held freehold. The personal names on the plots are
those of the owners, rather than of the occupants.
Soil: Dyke township is on a very slight ridge of
glacial sand and gravel, which disappears into the lacustrine,
fen edge gravel at the street’s broad eastern end (IGS). On the south side, the longer
crofts extended to the edge of this gravel before they were extended onto the
open Nutto Field. On the north side, the gravel
extends further but was overlain by peat when the site was chosen. This may
account for the comparative lack of depth of the crofts on this side of the
street.
Management: The map was made in 1825 but details of fact changed as
time went on. The estate agent has made amendments as to ownership, for
example, where Edward Clipsham has replaced Sarah
Phillips but also more general economic changes in the landscape. The faint
north-south pencil line to the west of centre represents part of the Bourne to
Sleaford railway line opened in 1871.
Features: Plot 142, owned copyhold by Robert Lloyd, has a barn
adjacent to the ford. This survived until the 1990s and was archaeologically
interesting since half of it stood on the natural ground of the west bank of the
Roman Car Dyke, while the other half stood on the fill of their excavation.
Between the two halves was a large crack in the wall facing the road. It is clear from this that the Roman dike here was of
the same dimensions as have been found
elsewhere and that the present drain lies in the eastern part of the original
trench (RJP1).
Several of the
crofts have been extended onto what was part of the open fields. It looks as
though the Enclosure Commissioners listened to the owners’ wishes when placing
allocations they had decided upon.
For a broader view of Dyke,
see BAEM 5.
Index of samples from the whole map Archive Contents