Scheduled Monument: A shrunken medieval village and earlier prehistoric settlement remains at Walnut Tree Field (1008750)

DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT. The monument includes the remains of a shrunken medieval village surviving as a complex of extant earthworks, with prehistoric settlement remains surviving as buried features, set in a field adjacent to the River Stour. The monument has been surveyed recently and partially excavated, providing detailed information on the evolution of the site from the Mesolithic period to the present day. The surviving earthworks, which date mainly to the 13th and 14th centuries, consist oflinear banks and ditches, building platforms, and hollows, as well as spreads of sandstone, mortar, flint and the foundation courses of walls, all of which represent the settlement and infield areas of the shrunken village of Sturminster Marshall. However, the earliest occupation of the site is much earlier. Excavation has shown, for example, that the area of the monument had been settled in the Neolithic period, and, indeed, had indications of a Mesolithic presence in the form of small flint tools called microliths. Excavation also revealed burials which have been interrpeted as belonging to the Late Saxon minster which was thought to have existed at Sturminster Marshall before the Domesday survey. Sturminster Marshall was assessed at 30 hides in Domesday Book and,as such, was one of thelargest manors in Dorset. Remains of the medieval settlement will extend into the area of the modern village but their extent and survival are not known. A number of features within the area are excluded from the scheduling; these are the earth bank of the flood barrier and the matting on which it was constructed, and the post and wire fences and stone walls; the ground beneath all the exclusions is, however, included. ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE.

Record last edited

Jan 22 2025 3:47PM