Monument record MDO1995 - Enclosure, Piddletrenthide

A circular earthwork at first thought possibly to be a round barrow, is now interpreted as an enclosure of Iron Age/Romano British date and may be associated with a Iron Age/Romano British field system. A ditched and banked curvilinear enclosure is very faintly visible as a cropmark on a 1966 aerial photograph. The feature was digitally plotted from this source during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project

A near-circular almost destroyed earthwork situated on top of a spur. It is broken, or open, at the southeast where a slight curving scarp crosses the enclosure. There is a shallow circular depression west of centre. Faint traces of fields around suggest that the earthwork was avoided as if comtemporary or earlier. <1>

Possibly a hut-circle, not a tumulus. <3>

A probable IA/RB homestead situated on a gently east-facing pasture slope, within an IA/RB field system (ST 60 SE 64) with which it may be associated. The earthwork much reduced and spread by the plough is oval in plan and measures, overall, 44.0m NNE-SSW by an estimated 40.0m transversely, 25.0m of the east side having been ploughed-out. The work comprises an earthen bank, 7.0m wide, 0.3m high with an outer ditch, 5.0m wide, 0.3m deep. A depression (? hut site) against the west side of the interior is 7.0m in diameter, 0.3m deep. The entrance was probably to the east.

Published 1:2500 survey revised. <4>

A ditched and banked curvilinear enclosure is very faintly visible as a cropmark on a 1966 aerial photograph. Although very indistinct, the feature presents as a sub-oval enclosure approximately 50m by 40m, with an internal bank and outer ditch. Gaps are present on the east, south and northwest sides. Any of these could be as much down to visiblility as being part of any entrance construction. Sections of the inner bank are visible on the east side of the feature on Environment Agency lidar imagery, although as a whole the feature is not clearly visible from this source. A sub-circular depression is visible towards the west side of the feature and might be associated. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <7, 8>

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 124 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1962 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 68430133) Earthwork (NR)

<3> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 326 (Monograph). SDO136.

<4> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F1 ASP 15-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<5> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/096 RCHME Inventory: Dorset III (Central) (Unpublished document). SDO17384.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199072 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<7> John Boyden, 04-JUL-1966, JRB 9714/36 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20853.

<8> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Aug 13 2024 12:58PM