Monument record MDO41647 - Possible post medieval extractive pit, Corfe Mullen

A sub-circular ditched feature with a flanking cresentic bank is visible on open heathland at Corfe Mullen on 1940s aerial photographs. The feature may be a post medieval extractive pit but could alternatively be of modern military origin, perhaps a weapons pit or a World War II bomb crater. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A sub-circular ditched feature with a flanking cresentic bank is visible on open heathland at Corfe Mullen on 1940s aerial photographs (1).

The feature comprises a sub-circular hollow 2.2m in diameter with an irregular cresentic bank flanking its north, east and west sides. A gap on the south side could indicate a possible entrance.

Similar features are visible across large parts of the Dorset heathland, typically situated within areas of both post medieval extraction and early 20th Century military activity. It is often hard to positively identify these small banked and ditched features with one or the other, although some are more clearly military in origin. This feature may be a post medieval extractive pit but could alternatively be of modern military origin, perhaps a weapons pit or a World War II bomb crater.

The site is under housing on current Google Earth imagery and the feature is no longer visible, presumed levelled. It was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Royal Air Force, 05-SEP-47, RAF/CPE/UK/2289 Vp3 5291-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16203.

Record last edited

Sep 4 2018 11:58AM