Monument record MDO7946 - Later Prehistoric field system, Ballard Down, Studland

The earthwork remains of a later prehistoric field system are visible on aerial photographs of the 1940s on Ballard Down. A system of banked field boundaries forming small, sub-rectangular fields are visible over an area measuring approximately 1000 m by 195 m. (1-2) Further areas of field boundaries, probably associated with the site, are located to the east and south east (see linked records).

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-MAY-1946, RAF 3G/TUD/UK/206 PART I 5004-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13454.

<2> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 2396-97 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13450.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 632 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘Group (29): BALLARD DOWN (SZ 08 SW), in the parishes of Studland and Swanage. 'Celtic' fields, some with the remains of mediaeval and later ploughing, survive on Ballard Down and behind Handfast Point. The remains are in disconnected blocks, totalling about 65 acres, which may once have joined. Some have disappeared into the sea near Handfast Point. Most are fragmentary but (iii), now destroyed, was notable for its well-preserved small, almost square, fields. All the 'Celtic' fields are separated from the Romano-British buildings at Woodhouse Hill (Roman section, Studland (46)), by the mediaeval open fields.
(i) N. slope of Ballard Down, W. end (019813–031813). Traces of 'Celtic' fields cover about 18 acres on a slope of up to 15°. Only one complete field survives, measuring 46 yds. by 35 yds., above a lynchet 10 ft. high. A negative lynchet 2 ft. high runs along the slope only 12 yds. below the undisturbed edge of Ulwell Barrow, Studland (29), suggesting the upper limit of the fields at this point.’

<4> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 117 (Index). SDO147.

‘The site extends across fields ploughed and in ley pasture and on the steeper slopes rough grassland colonized by gorse. 7/7/C.’

Record last edited

Mar 5 2018 12:28PM