Monument record MDO1057 - Poundbury hillfort, Dorchester

In 1855, in making the cutting leading to the railway tunnel on the south eastern side of Poundbury camp, a section through the valla of the hillfort was observed. A stone sarcophagus and iron sword were also recovered. It was observed that outside the almost levelled second vallum there were no less than four small ditches with probably three valla between them.

The sarcophagus, of Ham Hill stone is in the DCM. It's sides were 9ins thick and and measured 7ft 2ins x 2ft 9ins X 1ft 3 ins high. It had a hole bored in the base and no lid. The iron sword had a tang of 3.5ins, a blade of 18ins length and 1.75ins width, tapering from sloping shoulders.
A reddish-grey jar with deep tooled lattice was also given to the DCM but is now untraced, but was almost certainly earlier than 3rd century AD

Excavations were undertaken by Miss K. Richardson at Poundbury Camp between 28th April and 18th May 1939, in order to better understand by whom it had been constructed, for what purpose, and to what extent it had been occupied.

A continuous cutting was made through both banks and ditches of the western defences near the NW corner, the area inside the camp was extensively examined, and two trenches were dug across the aqueduct, the first where this continued along the lower platform below the north rampart, and the second some 73 yards west of the camp.

The area within the defences was examined by a series of 3ft square trenches, about 38 in all, dug every 100ft. No evidence for occupation was found, although a Romano-British skeleton was found in a coffined, shallow grave in the silt of the inner ditch at the NE corner of the camp.
A trench was excavated through the western ramparts. This revealed a Neolithic hearth sealed by the outher bank, worked flakes and pottery were found at the same level below the inner bank, although none of the sherds were typically Neolithic.

The inner rampart and ditch were found to have been built in Iron Age A times, while the outer bank and ditch and an addition to the inner bank belonged apparently to the Belgic period. Three post holes (1 ft 6" x 1 ft in plan, 2ft deep) were excavated. They had been set 4ft 6" back from the edge of the ditch leavinf a 'berm'. They would have supported a revetment giving a vertical face to the inner rampart. In the second phase the inner rampart was extended to the edge of the ditch to provide a continuous slope. The second phase also saw the building of a stone retaining wall at the summit of the original rampart. The inner ditch had a funnel profile, with the last few feet dropping vertically to a base barely 1 ft wide. The outer bank was of simple dump construction with a V-profile outer ditch dated by a single sherd of Late Iron Age black, wheel turned pottery recovered from the base of the ditch.

Early 4th century sherds from the silting of the ditches and from area sites suggests that the Romano-Britons were engaged in some sort of activity in or near Poundbury at that period. {1}

Earthwork remains of an Iron Age bivallate hillfort, visible on aerial photographs. {2-3}

Bunting, R H (ed ), 1939, Summer Meetings (Article in serial). SDO9651.

Richardson, K M, 1940, Excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset, 1939. Antiquaries Journal (Article in serial). SDO9650.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 478-9, no. 172; 583, no. 224b (Monograph). SDO150.

Davies, S M, and Thompson, C N, 1987, Archaeological Evaluation at The Hutch, Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO141.

2009, Poundbury Hillfort and Roman Aqueduct Access Improvements. Open Acess Officer Report - August 2009. Photographic Record of Works (Unpublished document). SDO21385.

Stewart, D, 2013, Poundbury hillfort, Dorchester. A Geophysical Survey (Unpublished document). SDO16766.

Lock, G, and Ralston, I, 2017, Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland [ONLINE], EN3604 (Digital archive). SDO17130.

Dawkins, T, 2025, Hillfort House, Poundbury Road, Dorchester. Archaeological Watching Brief (Unpublished document). SDO21374.

<2> 02-FEB-1971, NMR SY6891/5-8 (285/306-318) (Aerial Photograph). SDO10883.

<3> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 4258-61 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10882.

Record last edited

Apr 1 2025 12:07PM