Bourne Archive:
BAEM: Dyke Meadows
http://boar.org.uk/ghiwxs7BAEM(pic5Mead.htm Latest edit 11 Jun
2010.
Text, page
and picture ©R.J.PENHEY 2010.
The Bourne Archive Gallery
Dyke Meadows, from the Bourne
Abbots Estate Map.
This is a
detail, covering the area called Dyke Meadows in Bourne Parish, taken from the Bourne Abbots Estate Map of 1825.
Gobold’s Park Moor Field Dyke Meadows Morton Parish Dyke Fen
The contrast in the picture here is enhanced to reveal what in the map
itself, is often very faint.
The parish of Bourne had three sets of open
fields; one set each for Bourne, Cawthorpe and Dyke. Those of Dyke were named Moor, Wath and Nutto
fields. Dyke also had its Fen, Meadow and a
group of small enclosed fields called Dyke Haws. A haw is a
hedge or the land it encloses. In modern use, we know haw best from its use in
the name hawthorn, that is, the thorn plant used for hedging. The variants on
the name ‘hedge’ and their significance are discussed on the page dealing with
the field called The Heg.
Boundaries: In the map, unlike the former open fields, the area has
no consistent brown outline so it is not possible to be completely sure what
was included under the name Dyke Meadows. Even the name is not given by BAEM
but it does appear in a map in the Exeter Estate Book so that there is little
real doubt about where the limits were. In the north it abutted on the parish
boundary with Morton. In the north-west, it abutted on the Car Dyke, beyond
which was the Moor Field. It had a short boundary on an anomalous strip which
looks as though it may have been regarded as an extension of the easternmost of
the Dyke crofts and it had a complex boundary with the Wath Field. In the
south, it abutted the Dyke Outgang, beyond which was Dyke Haws and in the east,
it was bounded by Scotten Dike, beyond which was Dyke
Fen.
Management: Its name indicates that before enclosure, it had been
pasture. Its position is towards the fen is consistent with this. As with
Bourne Meadows, in the early centuries of Dyke’s existence, it will have been more damp than the lands to the west of the Car Dyke were but
not wholly fen. Once it was artificially drained by the Scotten
Dike, the character even its peat-rich part will have developed away from that
of the nearby fen.
Soil: The Soil Survey
indicates that most of the land between Scotten Dike
and New Scotten Dike (modern name, Gravel Dike OS 1:25000) has a type 1024b soil, fen peat over glacio-fluvial drift. A small area of this drift is exposed
around the New Scotten Dike, giving 511i,
well-drained fine calcareous soil derived from lacustrine
gravel. Between New Scotten Dike and Wath Field is cornbrash soil (512a).
Features: The abrupt change in width of Dyke Outgang, at Scotten Dike is typical of roads extending towards the
fens. Such quirks mark the edge of a phase of expansion into the wetland. In
this case, the next phase appears to have been Gobold’s
Park, an enclosure of part of Bourne North Fen. The change in road width has a
counterpart at Frier’s Bar, on the Bourne Outgang, at
the south-east corner of Gobold’s Park. It looks as
though Gobold’s Park was bounded by Dyke Eau which,
to judge from the alignments here, ran along the north side of Dyke Outgang,
from the Eau Well, in field 52, in Dyke Haws.
Index of samples from the map Archive Contents