page_title: Ridge and furrow
section_title: Surviving locations
hierarchical_section_title: Ridge and furrow / Surviving locations
caption_attribution_description: English: An example of rig and furrow. This image is from the area around rough rig reservoir near Airdrie Scotland. Here you will find some of the best examples in the UK.
context_page_description: Ridge and furrow is an archaeological pattern of ridges and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open field system. It is also known as rig and furrow, mostly in the North East of England and in Scotland.
  The earliest examples date to the immediate post-Roman period and the system was used until the 17th century in some areas, as long as the open field system survived. Surviving ridge and furrow topography is found in Great Britain, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. The surviving ridges are parallel, ranging from 3 to 22 yards apart and up to 24 inches tall – they were much taller when in use. Older examples are often curved.
  Ridge and furrow topography was a result of ploughing with non-reversible ploughs on the same strip of land each year. It is visible on land that was ploughed in the Middle Ages, but which has not been ploughed since then. No actively ploughed ridge and furrow survives.
  The ridges or lands became units in landholding, in assessing the work of the ploughman and in reaping in autumn.
context_section_description: Some of the best-preserved ridge and furrow survives in the English counties of:
  Buckinghamshire
  Cambridgeshire
  County Durham
  Derbyshire
  Gloucestershire
  Lincolnshire
  Leicestershire
  Northamptonshire
  Nottinghamshire
  Oxfordshire
  Warwickshire
  West Yorkshire
  In Scotland, 4-600 acres of rig and furrow survive in one area outside the town of Airdrie.
  Ridge and furrow often survives on higher ground where the arable land was subsequently turned over to sheep walk in the 15th century and has not been ploughed out since by modern ploughing methods, today surviving still as pasture and grazing for sheep where the effect is clearly visible, especially when the sun is low or after a dusting of snow. It is often associated with deserted medieval villages.
caption: Rig and furrow at Roughrig reservoir, near Airdrie, North Lanarkshire in Scotland
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