View source for Lynchet

{{Short description|Earth terrace found on the side of a hill}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2017}}[[File:Bishopstonelynchets2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Lynchet system near Bishopstone in [[Wiltshire]]]]
[[File:West Dean lynchet.JPG|thumb|right|The slope of a prehistoric lynchet at [[West Dean, West Sussex]]]]
A '''lynchet''' or '''linchet''' is an [[Terrace (earthworks)|earth terrace]] found on the side of a hill. Lynchets are a feature of ancient field systems of the [[British Isles]]. They are commonly found in vertical rows and more commonly referred to as "strip lynchets". Lynchets appear predominantly in Southern Britain and many are in areas close to [[Hillfort|Iron Age forts]] and other earthworks, including later Roman earthworks and earlier [[Tumulus|barrows]] from the [[Neolithic]] and [[Bronze Age]] periods. The size, location, spacing and number of rows of many strip lynchets indicates that many were man-made. It is most likely that lynchets were dug to maximise the use of land for agriculture, although they may have had other, ceremonial uses.
The word is the diminutive form of ''lynch'', now rarely appearing in the [[English language]], indicating an [[Terrace (agriculture)|agricultural terrace]]; it is [[cognate]] with the golf [[Links (golf)|''links'']]. However, both "lynchet" and "lynch" may also be used to refer to a strip of green land left between two pieces of ploughed land on non-sloping ground; or to a natural slope or terrace along the face of a [[Downland|chalk down]].<ref name=oed>{{OED|lynchet, n. }}</ref>
The traditional theory on the formation of lynchets is that they may form naturally on the downslope of a field [[plough]]ed over a long period of time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thesaurus.english-heritage.org.uk/thesaurus_term.asp?thes_no=1&term_no=68626|title=National Monuments Record Thesauri|publisher=[[English Heritage]]|accessdate=14 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718172401/http://thesaurus.english-heritage.org.uk/thesaurus_term.asp?thes_no=1&term_no=68626|archivedate=18 July 2011}}</ref> The disturbed [[soil]] slips down the hillside to create a "positive lynchet" (where the new surface is higher than the original surface), while the area reduced in level becomes a "negative lynchet" (where the new surface is lower).
[[File:Loders Lynchet theatre.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Lynchets above the village of [[Loders]], Dorset]]
In [[Loders]], Dorset, lynchets form a terraced band structure similar to an amphitheatre overlooking the village. Lynchets also form part of the [[Conservation area (United Kingdom)|conservation area]] of the neighbouring village of [[Uploders]], where they apparently form old hillside field systems in close proximity to an Iron Age fort and hill-top barrows. 19th-century maps indicate that cider orchards were planted on some lynchets in that area.
==See also==
*[[Ridge and furrow]]
*[[Céide Fields]]
*[[Lazy bed]]
*[[Cord rig]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite book |first=Walter |last=Johnson |title=Folk-Memory: or the continuity of British archaeology |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1908 |pages=263–294 }}
{{commons category|Lynchets}}
[[Category:Agricultural soil science]]
[[Category:Landforms]]
[[Category:Archaeological features]]
[[Category:Landscape history]]