Monument record MDO1588 - Settlement on Hog Cliff Hill, Maiden Newton

A large irregular sub-oval enclosure on Hog Cliff Hill is visible as a cropmark on aerial photogrpahs and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

An Iron Age 'A' settlement covering 26 acres of Hog Cliff Hill was enclosed by a contemporary ditch, 4ft deep, and external bank once thought to be a Medieval park pale. Within the enclosure were about ten roughly circular exbanked features; four of which were totally excavated by P A Rahtz in 1959-60 and proved to be circular hut sites of combined post hole and wall-slot construction with no central supports. All the four huts had ill-defined hearths and a few small pits within their perimeters; one of which was a typical "storage-pit". One hut had been replaced completely some 10ft away from its original position; the second hut here was perhaps of slightly later date than the others. Finds included querns, rubbing stones, burnt flints, charcoal, a spindle whorl and a loom or roof-weight. A large quantity of Iron Age 'A' pottery sherds, probably representing the earliest phase of this culture so far identified in Dorset, were also found on the site. The characteristic features of this "early" Dorset 'A' pottery were the pulled-out bases and fingertip and fingernail decorations the latter in the local Late Bronze Age tradition. Rahtz interpreted the site as an Iron Age 'A' village and stock enclosure of a type not hitherto found; the nearest analogy probably being the 'pound' enclosures and hutclusters of the south west moorland areas. (The ditched and banked linear feature extending from SY 62469644 to SY 62539638 is annotated on OS 25" 1888 at `Old Chalk Pit'). <2-5>

Area of the settlement has now been ploughed out. <6>

The ploughed down bank and ditch of the settlement enclosure can be clearly traced on OS air photographs but no internal features are readily discernible. <7>

The enclosure has been almost entirely ploughed out a fragment only surviving in the wooded garden to the south as a ditch 5.0m wide, 0.4m deep and 20.0m long, at SY 62509639. To the NW of it a, now mostly destroyed, ditch was possibly part of an original trackway into the enclosure.

RCHM plan shows it extending into the enclosure but it also extends southwards beyond the relatively modern chalk pit to SY 62659629. where bifurcating ditches 0.3m deep are visible.

These ditches (or ? Hollow ways) have been isolated between, and truncated by, the modern road and the Roman road (R.R.47) on the north-west. Revised at 1:2500 on MSD. <8>

A large irregular sub-oval enclosure on Hog Cliff Hill is visible as a cropmark on aerial photogrpahs <13-14> and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project. The feature is cut by Long Ash Lane, the line of the former Ilchester to Dorchester Roman road. On the south side of the road the enclosure is defined by an outer bank and internal ditch, with some possible traces of an internal bank alongside this. On the north side of the road a section of the outer bank is fossilised by a later field boundary. The east side of the enclosure is not well defined or visible and there is no clearly evident entrance.

The enclosure is situated adjacent to an extensive field system (MDO42838) to the west, which may be broadly contemporary. Additional ditched linear features (MDO42841) adjacent to the east side of the enclosure are also visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. These may also be associated field boundaries of contemporary date, although a later origin for these is also possible.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1903 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 62489639 to SY 62279675) Ditch (NR) (SY 62629662 to SY 62319672) Ditch (NR)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 153 (Monograph). SDO97.

'(14) EARTHWORK, forming an enclosure partly in Sydling and Frampton parishes and about 2 m. S.E. of the church. The enclosure is about 26 acres in extent and was surrounded by a bank and internal ditch which have been destroyed towards the S.E. and N.W. The bank is about 12 to 15 ft. wide and 1½ ft. high and the ditch is about 15 to 18 ft. wide and 2½ ft. deep. The earthwork is of the mediæval park-pale type, but it occupies comparatively high ground (500–600 ft.) and is bisected by a Roman road.'

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1961, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1960, 83 (Serial). SDO60.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1963, Monuments Threatened or Destroyed. A Select List: 1956-1962 (Monograph). SDO12558.

'Iron Age 'A' settlement of at least eleven huts, previously unrecorded, within enclosure of 26 acres bounded by ditch with external bank (R.C.H.M West Dorset, Maiden Newton, Monument 14); bisected by Roman road. Excavation by P. A. Rahtz for Ministry of Works has shown enclosure and settlemetn were contemporary.'

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1963, Monuments Threatened or Destroyed. A Select List: 1956-1962, 14-15 (Monograph). SDO12558.

<6> Norton, Jack, Ordnance Survey Field investigator's comments JN, F1 JN 13-MAR-69 (Unpublished document). SDO19989.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1969, OS 69/114 048-49 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19990.

<8> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F2 NJA 12-FEB-81 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<9> Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, 1986, Annual Report 1985-86 (Monograph). SDO17055.

<10> Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, 1986, Hog Cliff Hill (Article in serial). SDO14173.

<11> Ellison, A, and Rahtz, P, 1987, 'Excavations at Hog Cliff Hill, Maiden Newton, Dorset'; Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (Article in serial). SDO16391.

<12> Bellamy, P, 2002, South Field Down, Sydling St Nicholas, Dorset. Archaeological Observations and Recordings, July 2002 (Unpublished document). SDO12256.

<13> Royal Air Force, 22-JAN-48, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4272-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16841.

<14> Ordnance Survey, 18-APR-69, OS69114/049 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16848.

<15> RCHM Unpublished Revision Dorset 1 - West Undated (Unpublished document). SWX1659.

<16> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 882492 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Hog Cliff Hill, Maiden Newton, Dorset

<17> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 882510 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME: Settlement 1, Maiden Newton, Dorset. Ink.

<18> Historic England, Historic England Archive, CC74/00411 (Index). SDO14738.

PLAN OF EARTHWORKS - PROBABLY AN IA 'A' SETTLEMENT NOW LARGELY PLOUGHED OUT

<19> Historic England, Historic England Archive, CC74/00412 (Index). SDO14738.

PLAN OF IA SETTLEMENT. ALMOST IDENTICAL TO CC74/411

<20> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453035 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 21 2023 4:37PM