Monument record MDO41683 - Undated ditches, New Barn Farm, Shapwick

Linear ditched features to the northwest of New Barn Farm are visible as soilmarks on aerial photographs. The features are of uncertain origin but may be trackways or field boundaries, possibly of historic date, although a late prehistoric origin is possible. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Linear ditched features to the northwest of New Barn Farm are visible as soilmarks on aerial photographs (1).

The features comprise a 120m long section of narrow linear ditch on a broadly SW-NE alignment and with a fork to the SW and SE just off-centre. The SW end of the feature may end at the field end and adjacent road but could potentially have once continued beyond the road where two further sections of curvilinear ditch curve to the west either side of the road and along the field edge on its south side (1). It is not certain the ditches are part of one coherent feature, however.

The features are of uncertain origin but are considered most likely to be trackways or field boundaries, possibly of historic date, although a late prehistoric origin is also possible. They were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> BKS Surveys Ltd, 07-FEB-68, BKS/3161 629261-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16220.

<2> Papworth, M, 1994, Shapwick Parish, Kingston Lacy Estate, Wessex Region (Unpublished document). SDO14228.

A linear ditch is visible on aerial photograph CUAP AXM58. It takes an irregular snaking course from north to south from Park Lane to the south edge of the enclosure 112,735. The west sides of enclosures 112,735 and 112,736 coincide with this linear’s alignment. It may be a later Bronze Age land boundary of which 112,285 is a continuation to the north. It ignores modern boundaries but deliberately avoids barrows 112,485 – 490 & 112,605. No visible trace of the site on the ground.

Record last edited

Jun 28 2019 12:05PM