Catch meadow at Little Weeke

Image: © Derek Harper Taken: 13 Sep 2020

Looking left from Image "An extensive catch meadow of probable 19th century date is visible as a series of earthwork ditches on aerial photographs ... Catch meadows provided a simple, inexpensive and effective form of irrigation ... water was diverted from a source such as a pond, river, spring or spring-fed stream and passed along the meadow slopes via one or more of the gutters, which was then caused to overflow. The lower, roughly parallel gutters then ‘caught’ and redistributed water passing it evenly over the surface of a meadow below. The gently flowing water prevented the ground freezing in winter and encouraged early growth in spring, thereby providing extra feed for livestock, particularly important during the hungry gap of the March and April. The catch meadow covers an area of approximately 5.8 hectares of northwest and south facing slope. The system comprises a series of gutters which measure less than 2m in width and appear to tap a number of spring-fed streams that rise to the west and south ..." https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV105218&resourceID=104 .

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