# What are these marks on farmland where housing is about to be built?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-marks-on-farmland-where-housing-is-about-to-be-built/662483>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 2, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-marks-on-farmland-where-housing-is-about-to-be-built/662483 "2013-07-02T21:23:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-marks-on-farmland-where-housing-is-about-to-be-built/662483/21 "2013-07-04T08:28:40Z")

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> [@Mr\_Downtown](#):
>
> I don’t doubt that most of them are archaeological excavations, but look at [the ones just north of the car park.](https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=flansham&hl=en&ll=50.801066,-0.646783&spn=0.003184,0.007365&sll=51.528642,-0.101599&sspn=0.588651,0.97641&t=h&hnear=Flansham,+West+Sussex,+United+Kingdom&z=18) You can clearly see little blobs attached to the sides, very much like [the agricultural buildings I pointed out.](http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=ce270d38103a630c3181db372a25a052&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D695427&v=1&libId=4f9da0f6-7d67-486a-b112-52b0d7602862&out=https%3A%2F%2Fmaps.google.co.uk%2Fmaps%3Fq%3Dflansham%26hl%3Den%26ll%3D50.803574%2C-0.633519%26spn%3D0.001592%2C0.003683%26sll%3D51.528642%2C-0.101599%26sspn%3D0.588651%2C0.97641%26t%3Dh%26hnear%3DFlansham%2C%2BWest%2BSussex%2C%2BUnited%2BKingdom%26z%3D19&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fsearch.php%3Fsearchid%3D9769364%26pp%3D100%26page%3D3&title=What%20are%20these%20marks%20on%20farmland%20where%20housing%20is%20about%20to%20be%20built%3F%20-%20Straight%20Dope%20Message%20Board&txt=as%20seen%20here.&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13729115289466) What requires a long main building and all the little side huts?

Looking at Street View that farm advertises “Organic free range eggs” so I assume those buildings are hen houses. A main barn with individual nest boxes at the side, perhaps.

Maybe some of the marks are remnants of buildings, as you say - those ones look more blurred and less sharply cut than the ones that are undoubtedly archeological trenches.

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