TOP SPOTS: 5 TELLTALE FFOORR LANDSCAPE FEATURES TO LOOK

Ridge and furrow

Indicative of the strip-farmed communal open fields that were prevalent in central England before enclosure carved up the countryside into private plots, these grassy corrugations were created by ox-drawn medieval ploughs. Ridges and furrows survive where ploughland became pasture and so hasn’t been disturbed by modern ploughs.

Field patterns

As a general rule, higgledy-piggledy field shapes indicate ancient countryside. Where open fields were enclosed from the 18th century onwards, fields tend to be larger and regular in shape, with ruler-straight walls and hedgerows. In upland areas, such as the Lake District (pictured), you can still see traditional infield-outfield systems in the valleys.

Cropmarks

Buried walls and long-lost roads can show up as

negative cropmarks in parched fields, visible from higher ground during dry summers. Rubble and stone foundations just below the surface inhibit the growth of plants above. Inversely, lush positive cropmarks (pictured) appear where ditches and pits were infilled with nourishing organic matter.

Ancient woods

Semi-natural ancient woodland has been continuously wooded for hundreds of years (since at least 1600 in England and Wales, and 1750 in Scotland). Signs of historic management (woodbanks, pollards and coppice stools) can confirm if a wood is ancient or not. Another giveaway is an abundance of indicator plant species, such as wood anemone, primroses and dog’s mercury.

Holloways

Also known as sunken lanes, these occur where an unrelenting trickle of feet, hooves, cart wheels and rainwater has worn a deep trench into the land over hundreds of years. Some are prehistoric and can be 20 feet deep from bottom to bank-top where they cross the brow of a hill.