Water meadows
In the Hundred of Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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A bridge over a water meadow channel near Great Chalfield in a field called Watgrove. It is made of large thin sandstone slabs from the Forest Marble formation. .
Water meadows were a development of the 18th century agrarian revolution. It had been noticed that grass grew earliest and best where floods had been, so shallow canals were dug to flood low-lying ground artificially in late winter to produce early growth. This process was known as “drowning” or as “floating” and was carried out by surveyors, as the laying out of the distributary channels called for great precision.
In the example above, the stream that naturally flowed though the field was diverted to run around its edge.
Investigations of features in Watgrove field by Heritage England has been published: Nicky Smith 2015. Watgrove, Great Chalfield earthwork survey. Historic England Research Report Series 91-2015. (external link, opens in a new tab)