Volunteers have embarked on a project to protect and reveal the medieval lynchets at Southmill Hill in Amesbury.

Friends of Ancient Monuments (FOAM), part of the Council for British Archaeology Wessex, assisted by local volunteers and the Amesbury Scout Group, have started the long process of clearing the vegetation from the monument with the aim of returning it to its former glory.

The work is due to be completed by 2025.

SEE ALSO: Salisbury City Garden Bar announces extra week of business

The undertaking is part of a larger project that also saw volunteers working on the remains of Cam’s Hill, a medieval fortification on the outskirts of Malmesbury.

Volunteer Frances Matthews said: “It’s been wonderful to be involved in this community project. I have wanted to see these lynchets free of scrub for many years. It is so rewarding to help achieve this.”

Archaeologist Julian Richards of CBA Wessex said: “Winter 2022 marked a successful re-launch of the Friends of Ancient Monuments.

“There will be new opportunities for volunteers to get involved with the project later in the year, and FOAM will be back at Southmill Hill for a second season of vegetation clearance this winter.”

A lynchet is defined by Collins Dictionary as a “terrace or ridge formed in prehistoric or medieval times by ploughing a hillside.”

Once very prominent landscape features in the south of Amesbury, these field terraces, created by ploughing over hundreds of years, have begun to disappear below scrub and tree growth.