Monument record MDO1195 - Prehistoric field system, Batcombe, Frome St Quintin

Linear banked and ditched earthworks are visible on 1940's aerial photographs extending for several kilometres across Batcombe Hill and West Hill. The features form part of an extensive field system of probable Iron Age/Romano-British date and include field boundaries and trackways, one of which comprises a substantial linear embanked dyke running north to south on West Hill. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

Centred at ST 614033. A very poorly defined and scattered system of field banks and lynchets are visible along the top of Batcombe hill. The system, where visible, is almost entirely on an area of rough pasture, and appears to be of Iron Age/Romano-British type. In the area centred at ST 60700360 there are pronounced field banks and lynchets, the latter averaging 1.3m high, all on a south-west facing slope. <9>

A complex of banks and ditches situated at ST 626040 on Batcombe Down. They appear to be cross-ridge dykes but are not typical: rather narrow (overall width 20 feet or less), one is rather sinuous and two terminate on the high down instead of spanning the ridge. The dykes occur in three groups at the N, W, and E corners of the triangular shaped down.

In the north the spur is spanned by a bank and dtich 100yds long. A second bank aligned E to W and 170yds long lies 150 yds to the south, and a third, 270yds long and terminating on the down crest, lies a further 100yds to the south. The banks have ditches on the south side. In the west a bank and ditch 200yds long spans the ridge, with a second bank 300yds long and 180yds to the east. Both have ditches on the west sides and are aligned N to S. In the east a much reduced irregular bank 230yds long spans the ridge, and 700yds west, almost in the centre of the down, are two slight banks with a ditch, 300yds long and aligned NE to SW. All the dykes are crossed by hollow-ways and cattle tracks and, while it is possible that they are field boundaries, they are unlike other field boundaries in the area and are distributed in typical cross-ridge dyke locations. They are under modern arable and are severely ploughed down. <11>

Area centred ST 614033. A Celtic field system formerly extending intermittently E to W for about 2 1/2 Kms along the broad ridge of Batcombe Hill is now for the greater part under plough. Field banks and lynchets are now poorly defined on the ground except over an area of about four hectares centred at ST 60700360. Old surface flint diggings occur over the area centred ST 60650375 which is published on OS 6" as 'Field System'. <12>

The 'dyke' complex noted by RCHM <12> can only be ascertained as crop marks on Ordnance Survey aerial photographs (a) on the west side of Batcombe Down (OS cover not yet available for the E portion). These features appear to have been completely ploughed out. There is now no trace on the ground (currently under pasture), but it may be that the line of the ditches can be seen as soil marks when the area is freshly ploughed. <14>

The features form part of an extensive field system of probable Iron Age/Romano-British date and include field boundaries and trackways, one of which comprises a substantial linear embanked dyke running north to south on West Hill. The linear dyke appears to comprise a double-banked holloway that extends for approximately 540m from north to south on the north side of an SE-NW running trackway acros an area of ground shown as downland on the OS 1st Edition map. Additional linear hollow ways are visible on 1940s aerial photographs on Batcombe Hill, running SE-NW and ESE-WNW. The holloways link a series of rectilinear enclosures of varying size on a similar alignment. An additional area of linear banks are also visible on 1940's aerial photographs on the north side of Long Ash Lane, Frome St Quinton. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project. <1-8>

Many of the features are still visible as earthworks on current Google Earth imagery.

<1> Royal Air Force, 15-APR-45, RAF/106G/LA/218 FP 1040 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17012.

<2> Royal Air Force, 15-APR-45, RAF/106G/LA/218 FS 2017 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17034.

<3> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1975 FP 1057-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17003.

<4> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RS 4382-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17037.

<5> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RS 4378-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17025.

<6> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RS 4381-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17004.

<7> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN--48, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RP 3366-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17009.

<8> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RS 4379-80 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17038.

<9> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 29-SEP-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<10> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

Field System (NR)

<11> Stone, J W, Field Investigators Comments JWS, F2 JWS 24-SEP-76 (Unpublished document). SDO11902.

<11.1> Ordnance Survey, OS/74087/065 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17425.

<12> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, RCHM Ms File (unpublished revision of Dorset 1) (Unpublished document). SDO17382.

<13> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<14> Stone, J W, Field Investigators Comments JWS, F3 JWS 12-OCT-76 (Unpublished document). SDO11902.

<15> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199131 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<16> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199131 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 21 2021 12:20PM