Monument record MDO5870 - Enclosure near Badbury Rings, Pamphill

One of a cluster of enclosures visible as cropmarks and soilmarks on aerial photographs, situated near the junction of several Roman roads and thought to be of Iron Age/Romano-British date. A small irregular enclosure.

(Centred ST 966034) Enclosures and ditches, probably Iron Age and Romano-British, in the vicinity of the junction of Roman roads just N. of Badbury Rings, are revealed by crop-marks and soil-marks on air photographs. An elongated enclosure of about 5 acres, its N.E. side formed by the Roman road from Hamworthy to Bath, lies at 96450365. From its N.W. corner a straight length of bank and ditch extends N.W., and within the angle of the ditch and enclosure is a smaller, irregular enclosure. To the S.E. another ditch (96550357-96690325), roughly parallel with the Hamworthy-Bath road and immediately N.E. of it, extends for some 400 yds. A very small rectangular enclosure, about 70 ft. by 40 ft., bounded by ditches and orientated N.E.-S.W., lies alongside the Roman road from Old Sarum to Dorchester, at 96540336. <1>

The ditch running ST 96550375 - 96690325 possibly butts against [ST 90 SE 99]. <2-3>

One of the ditches which crosses the Roman Road, RR4e, was excavated in 1982. V-shaped in section, 2.0m wide at the top and 1.5m deep, it had been infilled prior to the roads construction. There was a possible bank on the north-east side. <4>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 52 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(73) ENCLOSURES AND DITCHES, probably Iron Age and Romano-British, in the vicinity of the junction of Roman roads just N. of Badbury Rings, are revealed by crop-marks and soil-marks on air photographs (C.U.A.P., CM 60; N.M.R., ST 9603/4, 5). An elongated enclosure of about 5 acres, its N.E. side formed by the Roman road from Hamworthy to Bath, lies at 96450365. From its N.W. corner a straight length of bank and ditch extends N.W., and within the angle of the ditch and enclosure is a smaller irregular enclosure. To the S.E. another ditch (96550357-96690325), roughly parallel with the Hamworthy-Bath road and immediately N.E. of it, extends for some 400 yds. A very small rectangular enclosure, about 70 ft. by 40 ft., bounded by ditches and orientated N.E.-S.W., lies alongside the Roman road from Old Sarum to Dorchester, at 96540336.'

<2> Bowen, H C, 1990, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke (Monograph). SWX800.

<3> Bowen, H C, 1991, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke: Inventory (Monograph). SDO14864.

<4> Coles, P, and Hale, T, Excavation of the Roman crossroads at Batt's Bed, Wimborne, 1982 (Unpublished document). SDO19364.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209525 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 8 2023 12:13PM