Monument record MWX604 - Late prehistoric and medieval field system, Hambury Tout, West Lulworth

Iron Age or Romano British and medieval fields. A group of linear and curvilinear banks and ditches are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs and Lidar imagery to the north and west of Hambury Farm. They are considered likely to be the remains of a medieval field system overlying earlier prehistoric fields.

Traces of Celtic fields, almost destroyed. <1>

No traces of Celtic fields are visible in the area of Hambury Tout on air photographs, but probable Medieval contour and up-and-down strip lynchets extend from SY 812808 to SY 821805. <2>

Virtually all traces of Celtic fields have been destroyed by ploughing. Low rounded scarps, in isolation, are the sole surviving evidence. <3>

Two or three Medieval lynchets are preserved on the south-facing slopes just south of the modern road, up to 1.0m. high, and others, faintly visible, are virtually now ploughed out.

A group of linear and curvilinear banks and ditches are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs <4-7> and Lidar imagery <8> to the north and west of Hambury Farm. They are considered likely to be the remains of a medieval field system overlying earlier prehistoric fields. These features were digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 628 (Monograph). SDO150.

<2> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 5436-7 (Aerial Photograph). SWX2688.

<3> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, 24-JUL-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

‘Virtually all traces of Celtic fields have been destroyed by ploughing. Low rounded scarps, in isolation, are the sole surviving evidence.’

<4> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1821 F36 5436-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12938.

<5> Royal Air Force, 18-FEB-1970, RAF 58/0254 0005-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12936.

<6> Royal Air Force, 18-FEB-1970, RAF 58/0254 0066-67 (Aerial Photograph). SDO12940.

<7> National Monuments Record, 08-SEP-2008, NMR SY 8280/039 (26097/01) (Aerial Photograph). SDO12939.

<8> Channel Coastal Observatory, 25-FEB-2009, Lidar (Aerial Photograph). SDO12879.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 455634 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 8 2022 12:43PM