Monument record MDO4009 - Medieval deer park, Ibberton

(Centred ST 798070) Earthworks of a Medieval deer park lie 1/2 mile south east of Ibberton church, in and around Park Wood, on the east side of Ibberton Hill. The "....wood called Parke wood, containing 25 acres" is mentioned in a grant of 1547, which suggested to Cantor and Wilson that the park had by that time been dis-parked. The name Ibberton Park, however, still applied to an identifiable area in Hutchins (1774) time. The Tithe map shows Park Wood and Little Park Coppice and Park Mead whose boundaries have since disappeared.

The surviving pale forms a roughly equilateral triangle with sides approximately 700 yards long and enclosing an area of about 70 acres. Dimensions of the earthworks are:
A - B. (see plan). Bank circa 12ft wide and 2-3ft high with wide inner ditch.
B - C. Few fragments of ditch visible.
C - D. Fragments of bank only, some quite bulky.
D - E. Hedge on north side of lane has a bank a little larger than that on the south. No trace of inner ditch.
E - F. Similar hedge line to D - E.
F - D - H. Eroded bank, 12-15ft wide and 2-3ft high with narrow flat top. Wide inner ditch. <1>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1968, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1967, 176-177 (Serial). SDO67.

<1.1> Hutchins, J, 1873, The history and antiquities of the County of Dorset. Volume 4. 3rd edition, 360-1 (Monograph). SDO10245.

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201788 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 13 2022 2:25PM