Monument record MDO41218 - Possible post medieval extractive pits, Canford Heath, Poole

An area of possible shallow surface post medieval extraction on Canford Heath is visible on 1940s aerial photographs. The features may be post medieval extractive pits but some smaller sub-circular pits and enclosures within the area may alternatively be modern military in origin. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

An area of possible shallow surface post medieval extraction on Canford Heath is visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1).

The feature comprises areas of exposed ground (also visible on current Lidar imagery (2)), partially covered by vegetation, that may be the result of post medieval extraction; the heathland on which the features are situated in 1946 (part of Canford Heath) is typically scarred by widescale post medieval extraction, which is characteristically shallow but with some areas of deeper extraction also present. Within these exposed areas are scattered groups of small sub-circular pits and semi-circular enclosures dispersed across an area up to 200m long by up to 220m wide on the plateau of a low spur of ground. These smaller features may also be the result of post medieval extraction but alternatively may be modern military in origin, possibly practice trenches or weapons pits associated with a wartime training site.

The site is still open heath but under scrubby vegetation on current Google Earth imagery. The features are no longer visible. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

<2> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RS 4201-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16056.

<2> XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO15442.

Record last edited

Jan 6 2020 10:42AM