Livestock pens like this are known from other sites – typically along the old Drovers’ Road, where they were used for gathering the steers for the night. In the terrain surrounding the pen, traces of several ruts and gullies illustrate how the ancient routes were often corridors rather than proper roads. The many parallel tracks, which sometimes fan out, are clear evidence of how people were often forced to make a new rut when the old one had become too muddy and deep. Signs of ridges and furrows from the time of the wheel plough are revealed on digital elevation models. They accurately follow the fields and ploughing directions shown on old maps of land consolidation. The fields were abandoned and developed into heathland, probably in the middle 1800s.
