Monument record MDO5339 - Prehistoric field system, Winterborne Whitechurch

An extensive prehistoric field system of Iron Age/Romano-British date to the west of Winterborne Whitechurch village. The banked features are visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and cropmarks on aerial photographs and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM and the Dorset Upper Cern and Piddle AIM Projects.

DEVEREL DOWN AND CHESCOMBE (Milborne St. Andrew and Winterborne Whitechurch). Traces of 'Celtic' fields, mostly ploughed and in some cases disturbed by quarrying, occur over about 120 acres of undulating land, generally divided by N.-S. coombes, from a southern point at the extreme E. of Milborne parish, SY 823979, northwards across Deverel Down, almost to the road S. of Chescombe Farm, Winterborne Whitechurch, ST 826001-SY 833999. All the fields are on Upper Chalk, with patches of Clay-with-flints, between about 230 ft. and 400 ft. O.D. It is probable that they linked up with those on Roke and Bere Downs (SY 89 NW 12) and also continued in all directions. No certainly complete field survives, nor can the relationship of fields to the Deverel barrow, or the nature of a 'parcel' of enclosed strip divisions, be determined. Lynchets range from a recorded 1 ft. high on Deverel Down to 8. ft S of Chescombe Farm.

The Deverel barrow (SY 89 NW 5) lay near the corner of a 'Celtic' field and its remains are now some 50 ft. from the ploughed-down field edges. It is impossible to be sure of the chronological relationship. W. A. Miles noted in 1826 that the barrow stood on 'a sort of step to the plateau' (Deverel Barrow, 17), and his account, coupled with the present aspect, perhaps implies that the barrow was built in the corner of a field.

N. of Longthorns (825993), on ground falling gently N. above the shoulder of a shallow combe, air photographs show a block of six or seven parallel strips, bounded by ditches or furrows, within an incomplete enclosure about 170 yds. by 130 yds. cut by the parish boundary between Winterborne Whitechurch and Milborne.

A terrace-way or double-lynchet track, traceable for 3/6 mile roughly parallel with and just S. of the present road past Chescombe Farm, is earlier than enclosure and also earlier than an old road running S. from Chescombe, but its relationship to 'Celtic' field remains is uncertain because of disturbance. Air photographs: CPE/UK 1934: 2117-8 and 5117-8; 1974: 2353-5. <1>

The mapped extent of this monument is derived from NRHE mapping. It is not clear on what evidence this is based.

The extensive field system is visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and cropmarks on aerial photographs and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM and the Dorset Upper Cern and Piddle AIM Projects. <5-10>.

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 343 (Monograph). SDO136.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/096 RCHME Inventory: Dorset III (Central) (Unpublished document). SDO17384.

<3> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 883242 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Parcels of Enclosed Strip Features, Gps (38),(64),(67), Dorset. Publication proof, on acetate, `307' in pencil next to the site details. Three separate illustrations from the phs mentioned. Inscription: Parcels of enclosed strip features C.F Gps 38, 64, 67.Bibliographic References : 1) Pt 2.2) Pt 2, Gp (38).

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455865 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<5> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 27-SEP-1979, OS/79140 V 107 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20779.

<7> Royal Air Force, 10-FEB-1945, RAF/106G/LA/128 FV 7052 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20780.

<8> National Monuments Record, 21-APR-1976, NMR 926/424-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20778.

<9> J R Boyden, 01-APR-1966, JRB 9713/2 18A 19 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20781.

<10> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 V 5115 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20782.

Record last edited

Jul 23 2024 10:45AM