Monument record MDO43077 - Possible Iron Age field system, Sydling St Nicholas

Banked and ditched linear and curvilinear features are visible as faint earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs on downland north of Sydling Woods, Sydlking St Nicholas. The features are interspersed wth trackways associated with a Second World War military hospital (MDO43058) and are difficult to distinguish in places but may represent part of a late prehistoric field system of possible Iron Age/Romano-British date. They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

Banked and ditched linear and curvilinear features are visible as faint earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs on downland north of Sydling Woods, Sydling St Nicholas (1). The features comprise a series of narrow linear and curvilinear banks and ditches that loosely form irregular enclosures or partial enclosures. They are interspersed wth trackways associated with a Second World War military hospital (MDO43058) and are difficult to distinguish in places. In others they more clearly underlie these trackways, suggesting an earlier origin. They may represent part of a late prehistoric field system of possible Iron Age/Romano-British date. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

The majority of features are no longer visible on Google Earth imagery although some cropmarks on 2020 Google Earth imagery may represent some of these features. A ditched curvilinear feature (possible enclosure/trackway) is visible as a cropmark on a 1966 aerial photograph (2).

<1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RS 4381-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17004.

<2> John Boyden, APR 66, JRB 9713/232A33 (ST6103/2) (Aerial Photograph). SDO17049.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2021 10:25AM