Monument record MDO1976 - Prehistoric field system, Piddletrenthide

(Centred ST 706018) Iron Age/Romano British field system. <1>

'Celtic' fields are traceable from ST 70450085 to ST 705023. The pattern is fragmentary with the best preserved 'Celtic' fields on West Hill, where there are some prominent lynchets up to 8 feet high. <2-3>

A fragmented 'Celtic' field system as described by RCHM (2). The greater portion is visible as a pattern of soil-markings on OS air photographs <4.1-4.2>. <4>

Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1975 1041 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17586.

<1> Atkinson, R J C, 1949, spec 6 inch (RJCA 1.3.49) (Map). SWX1583.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 327-28 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘Group (42): Watcombe Plain—West Hill (Alton Pancras and Piddletrenthide. Plan, p. 328; Plate 86). 'Celtic' fields are traceable over about 190 acres on the spur of Lower to Upper Chalk that runs for 2 miles N.N.E. from East Hill, Piddletrenthide, to Church Hill, Alton Pancras, rising from 500 ft. to about 760 ft. above O.D., ST 70450085–705023–715035–713026. The pattern is fragmentary, some prominent lynchets being allowed to survive out of convenience, but it is continuous from West Hill to Church Hill. The best preserved 'Celtic' fields and a double-lynchet track are on West Hill, W. of the contemporary settlement Piddletrenthide (43), (see plan, p. 220). To the E., strip lynchets lie over 'Celtic' lynchets. On Watcombe Plain there is particularly clear evidence of a sequence comprising narrowrig overlying strip lynchets, overlying 'Celtic' fields. Old quarry pits have been dug into some of the larger lynchets. Stretches of a reused track, contemporary with the 'Celtic' fields, lead to the site of a possible settlement in the area of (a), on Church Hill (712035). There are traces of low banks and scarps on the ridge between this site and enclosure Alton Pancras (19), but no visible relationship with that enclosure.
Lynchets are up to 8 ft. high on West Hill. Some fields are marked by banks running against the slope, but in places the appearance of banks is produced by secondary ploughing behind a lynchet head; this also makes it difficult to be sure of original field measurements. Changes of arrangement contemporary with the settlement are indicated by the fact that the doublelynchet track, in places 10 ft. wide with an uphill lynchet up to 5 ft. high, crosses the first-phase lynchet of a field, immediately S. of the settlement, in which continued ploughing has built up a new lynchet against the track edge. On Watcombe Plain lynchets are up to 15 ft. high. The bank (n), 6 ft. across and 2 ft. high, with a ditch partly visible on the S. side, is at the southern limit of narrow-rig and strip lynchets. It lies on a 'Celtic' field boundary. The track W. of this is 10 ft. wide, edged by a bank 7 ft. wide and 1 ft. high on the W. and by scarp increasing from 1½ ft. to 6 ft. high on the E. It is almost destroyed by cultivation in places, but it assumes double-lynchet form, with 'Celtic' fields clearly associated, N. of Watcombe Plain. The bank curving eastwards at (a) on Church Hill, continuing the line of the track, is 14 ft. wide and up to 2½ ft. high. The area is much disturbed. The factors suggesting settlement hereabouts include the curved bank, the track leading towards it, the suitability of the situation, and its spacing relative to Piddletrenthide (43) and the probable settlement on Ball Hill (Group (43), area (a)).
Air photographs: CPE/UK 1975: 1040–2; Cambridge University Collections, verticals, K. 17, E. 152, 158–9 and obliques, LR 38–40, 42; AND 14–16, ANF 46–9; AAU 11–13.’

<3> Royal Air Force, 11-04-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 2369-70 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17537.

<3.1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 4365-67, 4367 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17536.

<3.2> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 4368 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17585.

<4> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F1 GB 18-OCT-78 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<4.1> Ordnance Survey, OS 74/058/033-34 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17442.

<4.2> Ordnance Survey, OS 74/058/035 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17560.

<5> Historic England, Historic England Archive, 883035 (Index). SDO14738.

RCHME. Watcombe Plain, West Hill `Celtic' Fields, Dorset: Publication proof, ink on acetate. 314 written on the acetate in pcl. Inscription: Celtic Field Group 42.Bibliographic References : 1) Pt 2, Group (42).

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 202122 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 8 2022 10:51AM