# Lynchet > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lynchet > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lynchet.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynchet > Source revision: 1322382130 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Earth terrace found on the side of a hill This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Lynchet" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Lynchet system near Bishopstone in [Wiltshire](/source/Wiltshire) The slope of a prehistoric lynchet at [West Dean, West Sussex](/source/West_Dean%2C_West_Sussex) A [lidar](/source/Lidar) view of Medieval ridge and furrow and associated lynchets and strip lynchets at Heddon Hill in Northumberland A **lynchet** or **linchet** is an [earth terrace](/source/Terrace_(earthworks)) found on the side of a hill. Lynchets are a feature of ancient field systems of the [British Isles](/source/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 [Iron Age forts](/source/Hillfort) and other earthworks, including later Roman earthworks and earlier [barrows](/source/Tumulus) from the [Neolithic](/source/Neolithic) and [Bronze Age](/source/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](/source/English_language), indicating an [agricultural terrace](/source/Terrace_(agriculture)); it is [cognate](/source/Cognate) with the golf [*links*](/source/Links_(golf)). 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 [chalk down](/source/Downland).[1] The traditional theory on the formation of lynchets is that they may form naturally on the downslope of a field [ploughed](/source/Plough) over a long period of time.[2] The disturbed [soil](/source/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). Lynchets above the village of [Loders](/source/Loders), Dorset In [Loders](/source/Loders), Dorset, lynchets form a terraced band structure similar to an amphitheatre overlooking the village. Lynchets also form part of the [conservation area](/source/Conservation_area_(United_Kingdom)) of the neighbouring village of [Uploders](/source/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](/source/Ridge_and_furrow) - [Céide Fields](/source/C%C3%A9ide_Fields) - [Lazy bed](/source/Lazy_bed) - [Cord rig](/source/Cord_rig) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-oed_1-0)** ["lynchet, n."](https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?q=lynchet%2C+n.). *[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary)* (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or [participating institution membership](https://www.oed.com/public/login/loggingin#withyourlibrary) required.) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["National Monuments Record Thesauri"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110718172401/http://thesaurus.english-heritage.org.uk/thesaurus_term.asp?thes_no=1&term_no=68626). [English Heritage](/source/English_Heritage). Archived from [the original](http://thesaurus.english-heritage.org.uk/thesaurus_term.asp?thes_no=1&term_no=68626) on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2010. ## Further reading - Johnson, Walter (1908). *Folk-Memory: or the continuity of British archaeology*. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 263–294. Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Lynchets](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lynchets). --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lynchet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynchet) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynchet?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.