Monument record MDO21729 - Earthwork remains at Cerne Abbey, Cerne Abbas

A complex of earthworks lying to the NE of the surviving Abbey Buildings is presumed to represent the remains of part of the abbey precinct. They comprise a series of enclosures with well marked banks and ditches. Part of the earthworks can be explained as the northern section of the precinct boundary. At the SE end of the complex there are three well preserved circular mounds, each surrounded by a ditch and each within a separate enclosure. The purpose of these mounds and enclosures remains unexplained. Features considered to be associated with the abbey are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

A complex of earthworks lying to the NE of the surviving Abbey Buildings is presumed to represent the remains of part of the abbey precinct. They comprise a series of enclosures with well marked banks and ditches. Part of the earthworks can be explained as the northern section of the precinct boundary. At the SE end of the complex there are three well preserved circular mounds, each surrounded by a ditch and each within a separate enclosure. The purpose of these mounds and enclosures remains unexplained [1].

Features considered to be associated with the abbey are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery. They comprise a series of low banks and ditches marking at series of enclosures and include three circular mounds at the SE end of the complex. Also, a probable double banked trackway leading towards the complex from the east. Adjacent to the east of the three circular mounds is an irregular area of disturbed ground that might be the result of extractive activity - the disturbance appears to truncate part of one of the enclosures containing the mounds - this feature is recorded under MDO48445. Further sections of linear banks are faintly visible on a 2000 aerial photograph and more clearly on lidar imagery, although they are difficult to define with confidence - they do however, appear to extend the area of surviving earthworks further to the west. There are two long sub-oval depressions visible on lidar imagery to the southwest of the complex, one recorded as an earthwork on the OS 1st Edition map, the other marked as 'ponds' on the Epocha5 OS map of 1979. The features might be, or derived from, medieval fishponds. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <2, 3>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 79 (Monograph). SDO97.

<2> National Monuments Record, 11-AUG-2000, NMR 18909/14 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20900.

<3> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Nov 7 2024 3:55PM