Monument record MDO7331 - Romano-British settlement and shale working site near Bradle Barn, Church Knowle

An Iron Age aggregate village and associated field system situated on the upper part of Smedmore Hill. The village and field system cover a total area of around 8.5 hectares. The village extends over an area of c1.2ha, partly reduced by ploughing. Earthworks are visible on aerial photographs.

(Centred SY 93147961) A prehistoric and Romano-British settlement, covering just over an acre of ground on Smedmore Hill, consists of a block of small platformed enclosures bounded by scarps or banks up to 2 1/2 feet high, some seeming to contain limestone rubble.

A mound to the south (SY 97 NW 27) may be connected with the settlement, and there seems an almost certain relationship between the settlement and the adjoining 'Celtic' fields (SY 98 SW 24), which appear to have run up to it on the north and be linked to it on the east.

Iron Age 'A' and Romano-British pottery has been recovered from a pipe trench adjoining the site (See SY 97 NW 21). <1-2>

SY 931796. Settlement on Smedmore Hill. Scheduled. <3>

The settlement is as described by authy 1 but minor amendments have been made to the plan of authy 1.

The 'Celtic Field' fragments noted on the plan survive as 12 irregular lynchets centred SY 93407958. They average from 0.5 to 1.5m in height and occupy c 4 ha. of pasture on the north eastern slope of a re-entrant. <5>

Earthworks associated with an Iron Age/Romano British settlement on Smedmore Hill are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <8-9>. The aggregate settlement consists of a block of small platformed enclosures bounded by scarps or banks. The settlement was digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1957, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1956, 76 (Serial). SDO56.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 509 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(55) SETTLEMENT, probably prehistoric and Romano-British (SY 97 NW; 931796; Fig. p. 509), in Ancient Field Group (20), covers just over 1 acre at about 540 ft. above O.D. on a gentle N. slope of Smedmore Hill, a limestone ridge, where the main fall is E. towards a valley-head. The settlement consists of a block of small enclosures unlike any other in Dorset. These enclosures are platformed, bounded by scarps or banks up to 2½ ft. high; some seem to contain limestone rubble. A mound just S. (see Mounds, Church Knowle (50)) may be connected with the settlement but any extension on this side has been obliterated by ploughing in narrow rig. Iron Age 'A' and Romano-British pottery, samian to late coarse ware, came from a pipe trench (Dorset Procs. LXXVIII (1956), 76) at the extreme E. of the settlement where it seems to be linked to 'Celtic' fields. The short, straight lengths of scarp along the N. side of the settlement further suggest that 'Celtic' fields ran up to it. (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1821: 5415.)’

<3> Department of the Environment, 1978, Department of the Environment (IAM) Ancient Monuments of England (Vol 2), 76 (Monograph). SWX1687.

<4> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 237 (Index). SDO147.

‘Site lies in permanent pasture surrounded by regularly ploughed fields. 1/5/D.’

<5> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 24-APR-86 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<6> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB74/04543 (Index). SDO14738.

PLAN OF IA/RB SETTLEMENT CONSISTING OF PLATFORMED ENCLOSURES SURROUNDED BY CELTIC FIELDS

<8> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 4231-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13484.

<9> National Monuments Record, 26-OCT-199, NMR SY9379/5-9 (NMR18611/01-05) (Aerial Photograph). SDO13526.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456573 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 22 2024 2:16PM