Ridge and furrow

This process has the effect of moving the soil in each half of the strip one furrow's-width towards the centre line each time the field is ploughed.

In damper soil towards the base of the ridge, pulses (peas or beans) or dredge (a mixture of oats and barley) might be sown where wheat would have become waterlogged, as Thomas Tusser suggested in the 16th century: For wheat till land Where water doth stand.

Surviving ridge and furrow may have a height difference of 18 to 24 in (0.5 to 0.6 m) in places, and gives a strongly rippled effect to the landscape.

When reaching the end of the furrow, the leading oxen met the end first, and were turned left along the headland, while the plough continued as long as possible in the furrow (the strongest oxen were yoked at the back, and could draw the plough on their own for this short distance).

By the time the plough eventually reached the end, the oxen were standing lined up facing leftwards along the headland.

Each pair was then turned around to walk rightwards along the headland, crossing the end of the strip, and they then started down the opposite furrow.

By the time the plough itself reached the beginning of the furrow, the oxen were already lined up ready to pull it forwards.

[8] This shape survives in some places as curved field boundaries, even where the ridge and furrow pattern itself has vanished.

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.