Ridge and furrow, Doddington Pocket Park (NGR TL 392 906)

These earthworks can be seen in the recreation ground off Newgate Street in the village of Doddington. The mounds and hollows visible in the field are the remains of medieval agricultural practices, known as ridge and furrow. In medieval times the land in the parish was divided into two or three large fields, known as furlongs, and each furlong divided into strips. The strips were assigned to the farmers across the parish to ensure everyone had access to good and bad land. The strips were general ploughed in a clockwise pattern, and the repeated movement of soil during ploughing created the distinctive ridge and furrow pattern. The ridges also helped to drain the land and demarcate ownership of the land.

This field was enclosed some time before the mid 17th century and has not been ploughed since, ensuring the survival of the earthworks. The pond in the north-east corner dates back until at least the 18th century, and would have been used to provide grazing livestock with water.

This field in Doddington is one of the best preserved examples of ridge and furrow in Fenland.

Stonea Camp, Wimblington (NGR TL 448 930)

Stonea Camp can be accessed via the farm track-way running through Stitches Farm, signposted from the B1093 to Manea.

Situated on a low gravel island in the fens, the site was fortified with banks and ditches during the Iron Age (500 BC - 43 AD) to make a hillfort. Examples from elsewhere in Britain show that hillforts were enclosed settlements, which could easily be defended in times of political unrest, although little occupation evidence has been found at Stonea Camp. It is possible that Stonea Camp may have been the site of conflict between the Iceni and the Romans in 44 AD, and human bones showing clear evidence of sword marks were found in one of the ditches during excavations in 1991. Excavation by the British Museum in 1980 suggested there had been some deliberate destruction by the Romans, who further asserted their authority by establishing a tower and town just to the north of Stonea Camp.

Visible today are the earthworks remains of the defensive banks and ditches which surrounded the hillfort. The earthworks show two distinct phases - an outer larger enclosure and an inner D-shaped area. The outer ditches had been levelled by agriculture in the 1970s and 80s, but were carefully reinstated in 1991.

Stonea Camp is a Scheduled Ancient Monument - please treat it with respect and do not use metal detectors there.

The March Sconce (NGR TL 420 957)

The March Sconce lies in the southeastern quarter of the rectangular field immediately to the south of Eastwood Avenue. It is a star-shaped military fortification which dates back to the English Civil War (1643-5), and may have formed part of the Cambridgeshire frontier of the Parliamentarian forces during the early stages of the Civil War. However its lack of strategic positioning, and the apparent incompletion of the monument, have led to suggestions its construction may have been undertaken as a training exercise!

An earthwork survey carried out in 1991 showed that the sconce had supplanted a small domestic settlement, which in turn had overlain ridge and furrow remains of medieval agriculture.

Remains visible today include low earthworks made up of a rectangular platform with triangular bastions at each of corners, which are well preserved on the eastern site, and surrounded by a shallow ditch. Traces of medieval ridge and furrow are also visible.

The March Sconce is a Scheduled Ancient Monument - please treat it with respect and do not use metal detectors there.

More information about these and other sites is available from Cambridgeshire Historic Environment Record.