Monument record MDO5845 - Ackling Dyke Roman road, Moor Crichel

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), xxxii-xxxiii (Monograph). SDO129.

'ROAD IV. Old Sarum to Badbury Rings.
The road from Old Sarum to Badbury Rings (Margary's No. 4c) enters the county just N.E. of Woodyates, which presumably takes its name 'the gate in the wood' from the passage of the road through Bokerley Dyke, the massive late Roman defensive earthwork which here forms the county boundary. At this point the road changes alignment 17° towards the S. and for a mile it is followed by the modern road (A 354), which then diverges westwards. The Roman road continues across Oakley Down and cuts two disc barrows (Wimborne St. Giles (106) and (111)) on the edge of a large group there. The well-preserved agger (Plate 87), often flanked by later tracks on one or on both sides, is now known as Ackling (?Oakley) Dyke. On Wyke Down the agger forms the parish boundary between Gussage All Saints and Wimborne St. Giles; it then crosses the Dorset Cursus (Gussage St. Michael (9)) and becomes the parish boundary between Gussage All Saints and Gussage St. Michael. The agger survives along the edge of The Drive Plantation, but beyond Harley Down it is increasingly damaged by tracks and after a short distance the line of the road is assumed by James Cross Lane, which continues to the Gussage Brook. On the far side of the stream, on Sovell Down, the road bends S.E. and then back to its former line, apparently to negotiate the slope; the angle is now occupied by a chalk pit. Beyond this, in Moor Crichel, its line is for part of the way a track, but in The Rookery wood the agger is preserved and in the arable fields nearby it is still visible as a low ridge. Through Witchampton parish and into Pamphill the road is obscured by a later track, but the agger survives on the edge of the copse beside King Down Farm. The Roman villa and the Roman temple in Witchampton (22) and (23) lie on either side of the road, within a mile of it.

The junction of roads N.E. of Badbury Rings is described and illustrated in Dorset II (pp. 528–9). It seems likely that the Old Sarum-Badbury road was initially continuous with the road which comes from Hamworthy and Poole Harbour, and that the branch from Badbury to Dorchester, though also early, was secondary.

Where best preserved, as on Oakley Down, the road has an agger 40 ft. to 50 ft. wide and from 4 ft. to 6 ft. high with remains of gravelled metalling. Such a height seems unnecessary on well-drained downland and it has been suggested that the intention was either to overawe the native inhabitants, or to make effective use of forced labour. The suggestion presupposes that the present agger was an early feature of the road, an hypothesis which as yet lacks support. The method of construction is known from several cross-sections. When cut at Woodyates in the 18th century three successive layers, each 1½ ft. thick, of gravel, chalk and flint were noted (Hutchins I, vi). In 1888–90 General Pitt-Rivers cut two sections N.E. of Bokerley Dyke. In trench IV the agger was 40 ft. wide and 3 ft. high between V-shaped ditches 83½ ft. apart (centre to centre), 3 ft. to 4 ft. wide, and 2 ft. to 4 ft. deep. Its construction consisted, from the surface downward, of 5 ins. of surface mould, 6 ins. of rammed chalk rubble, a layer of gravel 10 ins. thick, a further 6 ins. of rammed chalk and, resting on the old ground surface, a single layer of nodular flints. In trench III the agger was lower and contained sherds of New Forest Ware, nails and a glass bead; the ditches were only 56½ ft. apart, centre to centre. Other sections showed that the original W. road ditch cut into a 1st-century pit containing a burial. It was also found that the ditch of Bokerley Dyke had been cut through the road in the late 4th century, but was soon refilled and metalling laid down over the filling; later it was recut and not refilled (Pitt-Rivers, Excavations III, 21, 69–70, 74, 80, 91. Pls. clxvi, clxxi). A cutting made through the road for a modern Forestry Commission track on Oakley Down (SU 01931709) showed an agger 2 ft. thick composed of layers of fine chalk, gravel and earth, sometimes mixed, overlying a spread of flints.'

Record last edited

Oct 2 2014 11:20AM