Much evidence of past times remains in the fields around the village. The shapes and names of the fields reflect the ancient furlongs. Click here to see old field names. Old roads, banks and overgrown bridges give clues to the access routes and footpaths used by the villagers. Ancient hedgerows can be identified by their sinuous shape and the remains of the open fields can be seen from the ridge and furrows which still abound. Often the latter can be identified in low morning or evening sun or by the peculiar pattern of vegetation growing along the ridges.

It would appear that most of the fields had already been enclosed by the time of the Parliamentary Enclosure act for Tintinhull in 1796. This can be seen from the fact that they follow the general shape of the ancient furlongs, viz. long and narrow, rather than having the regular box shape of Commissioner determined fields. This can be seen by comparing the extract from the OS map with the equivalent area on the John Napper Map of 1786. See, for instance, the arrowed example below.

Original ridges and furrows are still discernible in many of the fields close to the village. These have been photographed and these are schematically indicated by black stripes on the map below. Some have live links to photographs of the actual field.  Ridges seen on the RAF aerial pictures from the 1940s are indicated in blue. The green stripes are the direction of the furlongs given on the John Napper map with pasture land as solid green. (Data as of Feb. 2005). The data below is most complete for what was once the village's largest open field, The Great East Field. View here.

Aerial photos of the surrounding fields were taken in December 2005 and can be viewed here. Many show details of medieval ridge and furrows which are invisible at ground level. Else click on the hotspots (hand should appear when you hover over them) on map below to see relevant image.

Field Surveys in 2006

Extensive field surveys were conducted by the group in 2006 as part of the LHI funded project Tyncnell to Tintinhull evolution of a village. Prehistoric field remains together with a ca. 300m diameter spread bank, thought to be iron age, were identified together with the recording of ridge and furrow in parts of the West Field. This work together with the data summarised above from old photos and the Napper map has allowed us to "map" the general distribution and direction of nearly all the ancient East and West open fields' structure. This is illustrated below. It can be seen that the original fields came right to the doorstep of the village. Note the position of the Romano-British ( possibly Celtic) field and the iron age bank, to the east and west of the village respectively.

Click to enlarge but note that the ridge and furrow shown in red in the West Field has been surveyed in detail and is the subject of a seperate report. It shows the pattern of ca. 800 years of farming.