Monument record MDO1418 - Prehistoric dyke on Black Down, Littlebredy

A linear dyke within a prehistoric field system, and associated with a small enclosure. Excavations at the point where the dyke and the enclosure meet revealed a ditch containing a few sherds of coarse undecorated pottery, suggesting a possible Late Bronze Age date.

'(66) Linear dyke, on Black Down (SY 68 NW; 60078795 to 60568793), within Ancient Field Group (3), runs E.-W. for 530 yds. from just below 700 ft. to about 575 ft. O.D. (Fig. opp. p. 624). To the W. if passes into Little Bredy parish where a small enclosure (Dorset I, Little Bredy (6) is attached to it. W. of the enclosure it extends downhill along the N.-facing slope of a re-entrant valley, first as a ditch with a bank on the S. side, then as a soil-mark, then as a depression 15 ft. wide, and finally as a narrow sloping terrace which fades into the hillside below a 'Celtic' field scarp. E. of the enclosure after a 14 yd. gap, perhaps due to quarrying, the dyke continues uphill, first as a depression then, E. of the parish boundary, as a ditch with a bank on its N. side.

Small-scale excavations on the dyke where it forms part of the enclosure (by R.C.H.M. in 1956) showed that the bank was 12 ft. across and only 1 ft. high, while the ditch was 9 ft. across the top, 2 ft. across the bottom and 3 ft. deep. A few coarse undecorated sherds from the ditch filling might indicate a date in the Late Bronze Age.' {1}

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 519 (Monograph). SDO150.

Record last edited

Mar 21 2013 3:26PM