Scheduled Monument: Poundbury Camp, associated monuments and section of Roman aqueduct (1013337)

DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT This major chalk bluff overlooking the river Frome has provided a focus of human settlement for over 4,000 years. It includes evidence of a Neolithic settlement of the 3rd millennium BC; a substantial Bronze Age occupation with hut plans, pits and field systems; an extensive Iron Age hillfort and associated earthworks, plus other structures, enclosures and related burials of the late Iron Age. There is also a section of Roman aqueduct incorporated in the western and northern parts of the monument. On the eastern half of the bluff is situated an earlier Romano-British farmstead; and an extensive later cemetery, possibly Christian, belonging to the Roman town Durnovaria and consisting of some c1450 burials. Further buildings and enclosures of the 5th-8th centuries overlie the Roman cemetery and indicate the continuity of settlement in the area. The following are all excluded from the scheduling; 1. all the above ground buildings/structures (though the ground beneath these is scheduled); 2. the areas of the 1964-80 and 1986 excavations; 3. maintained and metalled roads within the Trading Estate. ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE Poundbury consists of a major settlement complex which spans four millennia from at least the late Neolithic period onwards. Its central focus is an Iron Age hillfort with multiple defences which together with Maiden Castle, Hod Hill and others formed an important network of hillforts within the Durotrigian tribal area. Its significance is indicated by the fact that the Romans founded the civitas capital of Durnovaria alongside the hillfort soon after the invasion. The cemetery associated with the town is one of the largest Late Roman examples so far identified and archaeologically excavated in Britain if not Europe, and its Christian connections give it exceptional added value.

Record last edited

Oct 25 2024 3:21PM