Monument record MDO563 - Iron Age/Romano-British field system, Knoll, Buckland Newton

The remains of an extensive prehistoric field system of Iron Age/Romano-British date around Knoll. The monument has been disturbed but fields can be seen as fragmentary earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs, covering about 100 acres around the sides of the hill. Banked linear features centred on ST 369862 104435 are visible on current Environment Agency lidar imagery and are considered to extend this field system to the west and north. They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

On the hill called Knoll (centred ST 701044) there are about 100 acres of very disturbed 'Celtic' fields detectable. No certainly complete field survives, but some lynchets are 8 feet high. A probable settlement at ST 70130442 covered about 3 acres with a track entering it from the North West. The faint remains of platforms have been flattened by ploughing and some sherds of Romano-British pottery have been found on the surface. <1-2>

Scattered field banks and lynchets suggestive of an Iron Age/Romano British field system are visible round the north east and south sides of Knoll Hill, centred ST 701044. <3>

ST 70144 The settlement site and field system remain as described <1> <3>. The vague and unsurveyable (?) platforms are now discernible as patches of darker green grass. Poorly defined on OS air photographs. <4>

Banked linear features centred on ST 369862 104435 are visible on current Environment Agency lidar imagery and are considered to extend this field system to the west and north. They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <7>

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 327 (Monograph). SDO136.

'Group (40): Knoll (Buckland Newton). About 100 acres of very disturbed 'Celtic' fields are detectable between 500 ft. and 650 ft. O.D. facing all directions on the prominent small hill, Knoll, of Middle and Lower Chalk, projecting beyond the main Chalk escarpment (ST 69800420 - 70300505). There is a probable settlement, (a).
The fields are bounded by Landscomb, Castle and Bookham Lanes but formerly continued on all sides, though not necessarilyon to the Upper Greensand N. and E. of the area. The probable settlement (a) [card 28], at 70130442 just S.E. of the hill-top, covered about 3 acres with a track entering it from N.W. Platforms, on a 9 degree slope, have been flattened by ploughing but the faint remains suggest similarity to Piddletrenthide (43). A few sherds of Romano-British pottery were found on the surface. No certainly complete field survives, but some lynchets left unploughed are up to 8 ft. high on a natural slope of about 10 degrees. Air photographs: CPE/UK 2431: 3352-3.'

<2> Royal Air Force, 22-01-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3352-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17455.

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 15-SEP-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F2 GB 17-OCT-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<4.1> Ordnance Survey, OS 74/058/029-30 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17456.

<5> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/096 RCHME Inventory: Dorset III (Central) (Unpublished document). SDO17384.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201933 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<7> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Jul 24 2024 3:32PM