Monument record MDO8143 - Linear earthwork on Wareham Common, Wareham Town

Linear earthwork, comprising a ditch flanked on either side by a banks, on Wareham Common, dating to the late prehistoric or Roman period. Some parts survive as earthworks. The monument is cut in two by a railway embankment. The section to the west has been reduced in height by the construction of rifle butts during the First World War and latter agricultural activity during the 1950s. The surviving earthworks are scheduled. The remains of this bank and ditched linear earthwork of are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and Lidar imagery.

A trench runs through Wareham Common to the NE angle of the Walls, and from thence to the River Piddle. (2)

A trench with small low banks on either side; mutilated in parts, and non existent where it at one time approached the Walls at Wareham. For most of its length it is covered with bracken or coarse grass. It may have been a defensive work of some kind, but it of no great size, and lies in a valley so that it would be difficult to defend under normal conditions. The east end could probably have been filled with water from the river, but unless the ditch to the west was originally much deeper than at present the whole of the dyke could not be flooded. No surface finds were made during field investigation and no information gathered to throw light upon the purpose or age of this earthwork. (For topographical details please see 1:2500). <3>

(C). one of four dykes on Worgret Heath and Wareham Common (for a, b, d see SY 88 NE 22), similar to Romano British dykes on Cranborne Chase and apparently barriers to livestock movement rather than defensive. It consists of double banks with a ditch between them, of 44 to 44 feet overall width. Excavation has shown the ditch to have a flat bottom 7 feet below the tops of the banks. The dyke follows a low lying terrace for 860 yards, parallel to the River Piddle. Its line is continued eastwards towards Wareham by a large field bank, and it may have continued further west on the line of the Arne-Wareham boundary. The rifle butts (SY 909874) and much of the dyke to the east have recently been destroyed. 90848739; SY 91008740 to SY 91058741; SY 91118743 to SY 91218744. The first two stretches are generally as described by Authorities 3 and 5 above. The third and easternmost however, has been reduced to an insignificant ditch 2.0 metres wide and 0.2 metres deep. Resurveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <6>

The remains of this bank and ditched linear earthwork are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs (9) and Lidar imagery (10), running east-west across Wareham Common, Arne at SY 9078 8739, it is considered likely to be the earthworks described above. These features were digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1957, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1956, 77-79 (Serial). SDO56.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Various, Ordnance Survey Map 6in. Prov. Ed (Map). SWX2257.

Dyke (NR)

<2> Hutchins, J, 1774, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. Volume 1. 1st edition, 31 (Monograph). SWX2949.

<3> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 19-AUG-52 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1960, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1959, 108 (Serial). SDO59.

'The Dyke on Wareham Common. The remains of the portion of this dyke east of the railway embankment were levelled for cultivation early in 1958, without, so far as is known to the writer, any warning or provision for scientific examination, despite the hope expressed in the last paragraph of the note on this dyke in Volume 78, p. 79.'

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 516-7 (Monograph). SDO150.

<6> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F2 JGB 17-JUL-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<7> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1981, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1979, 141 (Serial). SDO79.

‘During construction of the Wareham by-pass, P. Woodward and L. J. Keen observed works to establish if there was any evidence for the continuation of Battery Banks. No evidence was found.’

<8> English Heritage, 1996, County list of Scheduled Monuments : March 1996, 43 (Scheduling record). SWX2762.

<9> DCMS, 1999, Scheduled Monument Notification 1999, 16-APR-1999 (Scheduling record). SDO17351.

<10> Royal Air Force, 04-JUN-1950, RAF 58/477 5111-12 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13444.

<11> Environment Agency, 2010, Lidar DSM (Aerial Photograph). SDO13147.

<12> Powell, J, and Good, O, 2011, Battery Bank (SM 29085), Worgret Heath, Purbeck, Dorset. Archaeological Mitigation Report (Unpublished document). SDO14941.

<13> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456660 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 23 2024 4:12PM