What is 'Ridge and Furrow'?

[supersprout]

Question for eridite gardening archaeologists ;)

Alongside the Oxford canal several grassed fields are contoured into long gently mounded beds - at a guess about 10 ft wide, running the length of the field. According to the handbook, these are the relics of 'ridge and furrow' cultivation from the distant past. The effect is like long rows of wide deep beds smothered in turf.

Does anyone know how that method of cultivation worked, who would have been cultivating in this way, and when? ::)

[supersprout]

[MikeB]

Yes
Gardeners
In the past
;D ;D ;D

[greyhound]

Wiki's there again!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_and_furrow

[Columbus]

Hi supersprout,

As a child in the east midlands I was familiar with fields that had ridge and furrow patterns located next to common land.

My new plot is developing the same pattern as I dig and plant
yard wide strips across its width.

Col

[supersprout]

thank you for replies - great wiki link. I was struck by the similarity to plot beds too col :)

Yes
Gardeners
In the past
;D ;D ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I grew up with these; there are some at the bottom of South Park in Oxford, just down the road from where I lived. Large fields, typically three for a village, were divided up into strips, and each man had a selection across each field, so good and bad land was shared fairly. Each complete field was devoted to a single crop, so there an organised rotation. http://idcs0100.lib.iup.edu/westcivi/medieval_agriculture.htm

[supersprout]

another good one Robert, thank you :)