Monument record MDO6151 - Course of Badbury to Salisbury Road, Sturminster Marshall

'The Roman road from Badbury to Dorchester, to be described in Dorset V, crosses the N.W. part of the parish and survives as an earthwork in Little Almer Wood'. (1)

Road V. Badbury Rings to Dorchester.
The road from Old Sarum dividdes immediatedl N.E. of Badbury Rings and one branch of it (Margary's No. 4e) heads S.W. towards Dorchester. Aster a short distance it crosses the Badbury-Bath road, which appears on air photographs (Plate 87) to be structurally the earlier of the two; as yet, however, there is no reliable evidence for the date of the layout of the roads nor for thir structural history (Dorset II, 528-9). Along the N. sides of the hill-fort and the Roman settlement (Shapwick (34), (31)) the road survives as an impressive agger, up to 65 ft across and 5 ft. high, scarred by quarrying and by numerous tracks, and flanked in places by side ditches and outer banks; in places the total width is 120 ft. Three promininet barrows (Shapwick (47-49)), in line beside the road, are no longer accepted as Roman (Ant. J., XLV (1965), 41-7). TO the W. of the Blandford-Wimborne road the Roman road has been destroyed by ploughing and by the modern road to Shapwick, which approximately follows its line. The road passes through the village, where traces of early Roman occupation have been found (Shapwick (33)), crosses the Stour just S. of the church and continues as a slight agger across the floodplain of the river. For some 3 miles beyond this it has been levelled by cultivation but much of it is visible on air photographs (CPE/UK 1934:3105-6, 3131-5, 5128-9). In Sturminster Marshall the former old field-names Greatstreet and Kingsway recall its presence. A short length of the road survives as an earthwork, 40 ft. across and 2 ft. high, immediately N. of the main ride in Little Almer Wood (SY 906998). From Winterborne Zelstone to Winterborne Kingston its line is marked by field hedges and for much of the way by a lane. On the summit of a spur, where the road crosses the parish boundary into Anderson, it changes direction by 9 degrees to the N. Traces of the agger survive in Winterborne Kingston, E. and S. of Abbot's Court, alongside a lane known as East Street; the lane then follows the line of the road into the village.[2]

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 611 (Monograph). SDO150.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), xxxiii-xxxiv (Monograph). SDO129.

Record last edited

Jul 14 2023 2:46PM