Monument record MDO7783 - Tree ring, Lytchett Matravers

A probable post medieval tree enclosure ring is visible as a banked and ditched circular earthwork on top of a sub-circular mound to the east of Lytchett Matravers on a 1948 aerial photograph. An outer ditch circling three quarters of the mound on its southeast, south and northwest sides is also visible in 1948. The features are cumulatively shown on the OS a5-2500 Epoch map as an 'earthwork'. They are recorded as anatural sandhill encompassed by a ditch and with a probable ornamental tree clump on top of the mound under NRHE Hob UID 457207.The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

A semi-circular ditched feature with central mound is shown on OS 6" 1970 at SY 95849551 and annotated Earthwork
(NAT). Not shown on earlier OS plans and not visible on available RAF air photographs.

A bracken and conifer covered natural sandhill, situated on and over the crest of a valley slope. The following measurements
are approximate:

Diameter 60.0 metres with a top 10.0 metres across, dug into forming a flat based hollow 0.5 metres deep. The mound is 5.0
metres high on the north side and 7.5 metres on the south; 10.0 metres from the base of the mound on a much slighter slope,
a ditch extends around rather more than the south-west half. It is 2.0 metres wide, 0.3 to 0.5 metres deep with the impression
that upcast was placed on the inner edge being limited by animal burrowing and tree planting disturbance.

The published OS 25" plan suggests that the ditch was formerly traceable right round the mound. Although it could be mistaken
for a massive bell barrow, the most likely explanation is that it was originally an ornamental tree clump enclosed by a ring
bank and ditch. No survey/revision action taken on MSD. <1>

A probable post medieval tree enclosure ring is visible as a banked and ditched circular earthwork on top of a sub-circular mound to the east of Lytchett Matravers on a 1948 aerial photograph <2>. The enclosure atop the mound is a banked and ditched circular earthwork approximately 20m in diameter, similar in size and form to two further such feature just over 250m south and over 400m southeast (MDOs 45673; 45674). Unlike those two features, there is an additional outer ditch circling three quarters of the mound on its southeast, south and northwest sides, also visible in 1948. The features are cumulatively shown on the OS a5-2500 Epoch map as an 'earthwork' <3>. They are recorded as anatural sandhill encompassed by a ditch and with a probable ornamental tree clump on top of the mound under NRHE Hob UID 457207. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project. The features are under tree cover on 2021 APGB imagery and not visible.

<1> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 20-JAN-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<1.1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1970 (Map). SWX1540.

<2> Royal Air Force, 01-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4087 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19434.

<3> Ordnance Survey, xx-xxx-1955, Ordnance Survey Epocha5_2500 (Map). SDO18568.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457207 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 25 2024 4:44PM