Monument record MDO5464 - Early Iron Age pits at Sleight, Corfe Mullen

(SY 985981) Iron Age A2 pottery in storage pits etc. Found 1929-32. Now in the Calkin Collection, British Museum. <1>

A series of seven small pits or scoops were discovered during gravel working at Sleight in 1929. Two of these pits contained significant amounts of Early Iron Age pottery, including bowls, jars and some vessels with pierced bases and the remainder contained only a small quantity of similar sherds. Two quartzite hammerstones were also found in one pit. <2>

This gravel pit is now disused and grass covered. There were no surface finds of archaeological interest and there was no visible trace of antiquity. <3>

<1> Calkin, J B, Annotated Record Map Corr. 6, 1968 (Map). SWX8351.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1965, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1964, 120-122 (Serial). SDO64.

"An Iron Age "A" site at Sleight, Corfe Mullen
On the N.E. side of the main road at Sleight, Corfe Mullen, and only half a mile from the Railway Ballast Hole, famous for its 1st century Roman kiln and an important series of palaeoliths, a large area of gravel was removed at SY 985981 in the 1920s and 1930s. In the summer of 1929 the gravel diggers exposed a small pit containing a quantity of pottery. On August 17th the late Lt.-Col. C.D. Drew visited the site and made a rough sketch of the section. This shows a pit 4ft. Wide at the mouth, and penetrating the gravel to a depth of about 2ft. 8in. His sketch indicates that the pottery was found in the lower two-thirds together with charcoal and burnt stones near the bottom. The present writer [J B Calkin] visited the site shortly afterwards, and obtained more pottery from the pit. The workmen were instructed to keep a sharp look-out for similar finds, with a result that within the next two and a half years seven more pits were recorded, though they were more in the nature of small pockets and except in one case (pit 3) they only contained a few sherds. These however, sufficed to link all the pits with the first one. During several years following nothing more was recorded and the site seems to have been worked out.
Among the vessels represented there are eight bowls, three situlae and three jars with vertical rim. There is a wide range of ware, sandy (S), medium course with a lumpy surface ( C), ware with a leathery texture (L) and haematite-coated ware (H)" (1)

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 17-NOV-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457134 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 5 2022 3:12PM