Beacon Hill, Radnorshire - Royal Commission on the Ancient and ...

RCAHM Wales Uplands Initiative – <strong>Beacon</strong> <strong>Hill</strong>Figure 8. Cultivation ridges above Lawn Brook at 459m AOD (nprn 244293).Domination of sheep farming in eighteenth-century <strong>Radnorshire</strong> led to pressure ongrazing land, resulting in the subdivision of common land into sheep walks. Anexample of this subdivision of common land is shown on the Tithe map for the hillsaround Abbey Cwmhir, although it has been assumed that such boundaries rarely tooka physical form (Silvester 2004, 60). On <strong>Beacon</strong> <strong>Hill</strong> there is archaeological evidencethat can be interpreted as subdivision of common grazing land. Cefn Pawl, at thenorth end of the survey area, is a small sub-rectangular area of common delimited byfarmsteads on all sides. The common is effectively divided into three by twolongitudinal field banks (nprn 244004, 244045, figure 9). On Warren Bank a largearea approximately 900x300m is enclosed by a long L-shaped field bank (nprn244078), a stream and the boundary of the common. On the Tithe survey it is markedas ‘Warren Sheep Walk’, belonging to Cwm Bugail Farm. A dashed line on the Tithemap seems to indicate the line of the bank, although the bank is also integral with amuch smaller relict field system (nprn 244091). Another long bank on Warren Bank(nprn 244094) may also have been a sheepwalk boundary. Other long field bankswere discovered on Fron Bank (nprn 244126, 244129), Rhos Hir (nprn 244163),Stanky <strong>Hill</strong> (nprn 244325, 244331, 244334), on the hill south of Cwm yr Ingel (nprn244198, figure 7) and near Upper Heath (nprn 244270). The banks on Fron Bankenclose an area 950x450m bounded by Golden Grove and New Invention farmsteads.One of the banks on Stanky <strong>Hill</strong> (nprn 244325) is integral with a platform (nprn244330).10