Monument record MDO1174 - Prehistoric settlement at Little Hogleaze, Frampton

Earthworks of a scooped settlement comprising of four roughly rectangular scooped-out hollows are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs, probably Romano British in date.

In the field centred at SY 611922 are four sunken ways, bivallate or univallate according to their direction against or with the contours. From a focal point two radiate northwards to the plantation, one runs SW and is in modern use, and the fourth branch is visible for 100m in a southerly direction.

In the S part of the field are three earthworks, and the remains of a fourth. Each has been constructed by cutting back into the hill slope to form an approximately 12.0m square platform, the upcast being used as a bank around the top of the cutting, and probably partly spread in front of the cutting to form a level platform, though this is indistinct on the ground. The backs of the cuttings average 2.0m high and the outer banks are approximately 1.0m high and 2.5m wide. The N one of the four has since been deepened internally or a natural sinking has taken place, and the S one is low and mutilated.

It is possible that these sites are analagous to the Md 'platform houses' and farmsteads found in Wales and described by Lady A Fox. These face E and not S but are to leeward of the prevailing winds. The possibility of their being Md farmsteads would explain the extensive cultivation in an area well removed from any present village. <1>

A settlement on Little Hogleaze (SY 613922) is Romano-British at least in its final phase and contemporaneous with the surrounding 'Celtic' field system. <2>

Centred at SY 61279211, are four roughly rectangular scooped-out hollows; evidently the ploughed-down remains of the earthworks described above. Each is approximately 20 - 24 metres in diameter and 1.0 metres deep, and the group is similar in topographical position, size, appearance and condition to the house platforms of the RB settlement near West Hill Bottom (SY 69 SW 18). Surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. The sunken ways described above have been virtually ploughed out and only faint scarps survive. <3>

Earthworks of a scooped settlement comprising of four roughly rectangular scooped-out hollows are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs, probably Romano British in date and likely to be contemporaneous with the surrounding Iron Age/Romano British field system. Each is approximately 20-24m in diameter. The group is similar in topographical position, size, appearance and condition to the house platforms of the Romano-British settlement near West Hill Bottom (MDO1173). <4-5>

<1> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 03-JAN-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 623 (Monograph). SDO150.

<2.1> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3141-43 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11161.

<3> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F2 JGB 10-APR-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<4> 02-APR-1969, NMR OS/69053 020-21 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11165.

<5> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3141-43 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11161.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453692 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 27 2023 5:09PM