Monument record MDO1974 - Prehistoric field system with medieval ridge and furrow, King's Grove, Piddletrenthide

Earthworks of an Iron Age or Romano-British field system comprising pronounced field banks and lynchets, forming irregular fields. The lynchets average 1.3 metres high, and the field banks 0.5 metres high. The system is not so well defined in the south or the extreme east. Associated with the field system is a double lynchet trackway extending from SY 68959982 to SY 69079982. The trackway averages 3.5 metres wide, and is set between lynchets, each of which averages 0.8 metres high. The field system is visible as earthworks on aerial photogaphs and lidar imagery and was digitally recorded during the Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. The prehistoric fields appear to have been reused in the medieval period and traces of ridge and furrow is also visible.

Centred at SY 688997. An Iron Age/Romano British field system, consisting of pronounced field banks and lynchets, forming irregular fields. The lynchets average 1.3m high, and the field banks 0.5m high. The system is not so well defined in the S. or the extreme E. The whole area is under grass and rough pasture. Associated with this field system is a double lynchet trackway 'A', which extends from SY 68959982 to SY 69079982. The trackway averages 3.5m wide, and is set between lynchets, each of which average 0.8m high. Very indistinct on air photograph CEP/UK/1974/3370-1. <1>

Total destruction confirmed. <3>

The field system is visible as earthworks on aerial photogaphs and lidar imagery and was digitally recorded during the Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. The prehistoric fields appear to have been reused in the medieval period and traces of ridge and furrow are also visible. The features cover an area of over 17 hectares. <7-9>

<1> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 11-FEB-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 324-5 (Monograph). SDO136.

Group (37): King's Grove (Piddletrenthide). 'Celtic' fields of unusual form with one very well-preserved double-lynchet track met by another, less well-preserved, lie within 24 acres immediately W. of the open fields of Middle Tithing, Piddletrenthide (40), and S. of the present ridge road to Cerne Abbas, about SY 689999. The ground slopes gently S. from the ridgetop to a wet combe bottom. Patches of clay apparently lie over the Chalk bed-rock.
The prominent track (b), 10 ft. to 16 ft. wide between lynchets about 4 ft. high, runs W. across the middle of the area to a point just S. of King's Grove Barn, where it is met by the second track (c). Fields N. of this junction have tapering ends. One, a pentagon, has in the N.W. angle an oval mound (a), (68849990). This is 40 ft. long S.W.-N.E. and 23 ft. wide, with a flat top 8 ft. by 6 ft. indented by a shallow hole, and is about 4½ ft. high above the surface of the field whose N.W. bank skirts it. It is unlike any usual barrow or 'pillow-mound'. There is no sign of ploughing immediately beside it. Fields here and to E. are bounded by banks about 15 ft. across and up to 1 ft. high, in places deepened by cultivation into scarps up to 4 ft. high. The largest field is nearly 2 acres and the longest is 160 yds. by 40 yds. (Now totally destroyed by ploughing.)
Air photographs: F.21 540/RAF/1775: 0219.

<2.1> Royal Air Force, RAF F21/540/1775 0219 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18839.

<3> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F2 NJA 08-JAN-81 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<4> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/096 RCHME Inventory: Dorset III (Central) (Unpublished document). SDO17384.

<5> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 883021 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: `Celtic' Fields, King's Grove, Dorset. Publication proof, ink on acetate.`318' written in pencil at the bottom.Bibliographic References : 1) pt 2, Group (37)

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452827 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 30-MAY-1974, OS/74088 V 291 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21108.

<8> Environment Agency, 15-DEC-2023, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO20691.

<9> National Monuments Record, 10-APR-1980, NMR 1743/246-50 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21109.

Record last edited

Nov 13 2024 12:28PM