Monument record MDO999 - Prehistoric settlement on Whitelands Down, Dewlish

A possible settlement set in an extensive prehistoric field system. An extensive bank and ditched system comprising enclosures, trackways and field boundaries is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery, it was digitally recorded during the Dorset Upper Cern and Piddle AIM Project.

An extensive bank and ditched system comprising enclosures, trackways and field boundaries is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs and lidar imagery (2-5), it was digitally recorded during the Dorset Upper Cern and Piddle AIM Project. The features are likely to be the remains of a settlement and field system of Iron Age and Roman origin, they cover an area of over 15 hectares and continue to the north and east in record MDO857.

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 332-333 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘GROUP (47): WHITELANDS DOWN (Cheselbourne and Dewlish). ‘Celtic’ fields, very disturbed, are traceable on three areas of Whitelands Down in Dewlish and Cheselbourne parishes between under 300 ft. and over 400 ft. O.D. … There is a possible settlement (a) in the first-mentioned block, at 770996. … Possible settlement at (a), on the top and on the gently falling E. slope of a spur S. of Callway Lane, is suggested by a 100 yd. length of track, 18 ft. wide, with scarp uphill 3 ft. high and downhill 6 ft. high, which runs S., with a pronounced bow E. not required by the lie of the land, from about 77019965, where it was probably blocked by Callway Lane. South of this section of track its downhill side seems to describe a further bow to the S.W., the uphill side forming a chord about 80 yds. long across it. There are other suggestions, on air photographs, of a curiously sinuous continuation S. The very disturbed area W. of the track contained scarps among which, at 76959954, against the N. side of a hedgerow, was a curved flinty bank (b), possibly the remains of a dished circle, some 30 ft. across, cut by the hedgerow. … Air photographs: CPE/UK 1934: 1150-3; 1974: 2361-3.’

<2> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 FS 2109 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20856.

<3> J R Boyden, 18-SEP-1971, JRB 368/5917 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20866.

<4> J R Boyden, 27-MAR-1970, JRB 171/3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20867.

<5> Environment Agency, 15-DEC-2023, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO20691.

Record last edited

Aug 11 2024 5:36PM