Monument record MDO82 - Barnes' Lane, Alton Pancras

A settlement recorded as having been identified from earthworks within an extensive prehistoric field system in Alton Pancras and Buckland Newton parishes. The field system was surveyed on the south side of Barnes's Lane. There was no sign of the settlement, but sherds and Romano-British tile fragments were discovered in the area.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1956, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1954, 76 (Serial). SDO54.

'A field system was surveyed on the south side of Barnes's Lane and west of Holcombe Dairy. There is no sign of an associated settlement, but a few sherds and Romano-British tile fragments were found in the area under plough on the upper slopes near the lane (c. 700 ft. O.D.).
(i) Earthenware tile fragments (1953. 16.1) from areas St (31)/68180375, 68350380 and 68480374.
(ii) base fragment of an R.B flagon of ornage ware and 5 abraded sherds of coarse sandy ware, non necessarily pre-Roman, ST (31)/68450380. (1953.16.2).
(iii) 4 coarse ware sherds (1953.16.3) similar to (ii), ST (31)/68580380.
(iv) Small fragments of R.B tile and 18 sherds 91953.16.4) similar to (ii), st (31)/68410378.'

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 326-327 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘Group (39): Barnes's Lane (Alton Pancras, Buckland Newton and Cerne Abbas (Dorset I)). The group consists of some 180 acres of much broken 'Celtic' field remains in the N.W. of Alton Pancras and S.W. of Buckland Newton parishes, extending from about ST 680027, S. of Holcombe Wood, to Ridge Hill, 680050. A few traces continue W. into Nether Cerne. There are two possible settlements, (a) and (b). … In Buckland Newton parish, at 68580403, in arable land N. of Ford Down Lane, traces of irregular close-set terraces (b), up to 130 yds. long, may mark the site of a settlement. Romano-British tiles and coarse pottery have been found scattered on the 'Celtic' fields just S. of Barnes's Lane where, at 68370376, a schist hone was also found (Dorset Procs., 76 (1954), 76, 98–9.)
Lynchets formerly crossed the line of Barnes's Lane and there is no sign of a contemporary route to correspond with the 'Great Ridgeway' (cf. Timperley and Brill, Ancient Trackways of Wessex (1965), 20).
Air photographs: CPE/UK 1974:4370–2; 1975:1043–5; 2431: 3354–7).’

Record last edited

Sep 19 2019 11:45AM