Monument record MDO2557 - Cross dyke in Jackman's Plantation, Stratton

A linear earthwork crossing a ridge and consisting of a ditch with a bank on the south-west side. In 1952 the best-preserved part of the ditch was reported as 13 feet wide and 1¾ feet deep, and the bank about 11 feet wide and one foot high. The remains of an apparent bank on the north-east side are thought to be later. A 75m long section of a double banked and ditched linear earthwork is visible on current Environment Agency lidar imagery, which appears to extend the feature as recorded on the 1st Editon map further to the southeast. This feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

A 75m long section of a linear earthwork or cross dyke to the northeast of Jackman's Cross is visible as a double banked and ditched linear earthwork on current Environment Agency lidar imagery. It appears to extend south eastwards a linear earthwork recorded as a 'ditch' on the 1st Edition map. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <2>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 229 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(11) … To the N. of Lawyer's Plantation, N.E. of Grimstone Down, is a dyke and beyond it to the E. are further remains of a Celtic field-system; this system extended some distance to the S. The dyke, above mentioned, extends across the ridge and the ditch at its best preserved point is 13 ft. wide and 1¾ ft. deep; there are remains of a bank on the S.W. about 11 ft. wide and 1 ft. high and traces also of a bank to the N.E. which, however, appears to be no part of the original work.’

<2> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Oct 22 2024 10:50AM