Drought, drones and drains

[Goweresque]

On a whim I recently asked a friend of mine who has a drone if he'd do an aerial survey of the farm, as the drought conditions (no amount of rain here for getting on for 2 months now, following a dry spring and a dry winter) were making ideal conditions to identify old drains, and highlight any wetter areas of the farm for future drainage projects. It was an inspired decision as the resulting footage has shown all manner of drains I had no idea existed, and confirmed the locations of others that I suspected.

This picture, taken from part of drone footage, clearly shows a drain (almost certainly an old stone one that is probably as old as the farm, late 18th, early 19th century) angling up across the field to the right, which I had no idea was there, and another heading out into the field on the left. I always suspected there might be something there, as the grass on the margin always grew thicker at that point. There's also a third one towards the top of the right hand field, curving in towards the hedge in the middle, again totally unknown prior to looking at this footage.

The flight also showed up a rather spectacular archaeological feature:

Almost certainly Iron Age in origin, as the neighbouring farm has a known Iron Age settlement in the next field over. I did know something was there as the field is on the county archaeology register, but never really knew what for. Looks like some sort of enclosure, as the ring has a break in it at about 8 o'clock, possibly for livestock maybe?

Its been fascinating to be able to look at the farm from this elevated angle, to see where soil types change, to see where the green amid the brown identifies sources of water, and to see the history of the farm revealed by the dry conditions. Its like having a sort of combined time machine and x-ray specs!

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

Look out. Time Team will be out digging in your field next !

 

[renewablejohn]

Be interesting to find out what the green dot a 2 o'clock is whether its an old well. Also the kink in the road looks to be an old hedgerow or roadway extending into the field with a drain at the side of it.

 

[Goweresque]

Be interesting to find out what the green dot a 2 o'clock is whether its an old well. Also the kink in the road looks to be an old hedgerow or roadway extending into the field with a drain at the side of it.

It could have been a well, that part of the field definitely has moisture, you can see the swathe of green in the crop.

I'm also pretty sure there's a drain coming out on that corner of the field too. I did some ditching there last winter and there was water oozing up when I reached the turn, but I had no idea there might be a drain there. I subsequently found several clay pipes in other parts of the same field so I'm fairly sure that line that cuts through the circle is another clay drain.