Monument record MDO2073 - Prehistoric field system at Portesham Withy Bed, Portesham

A later prehistoric field system is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs {1-2}, covering a re-entrant valley of about 30 acres to the north of Portesham Withy Bed. The site which was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project, is partially overlain by medieval strip lynchets recorded separately in MDO2034.

A terraceway climbs the steep natural scarp N. from the Withy Bed where finds of pottery, iron, bronze, bone and flint (Dorset Procs. XXXVII (1916), XXXIX), now lost, suggest Romano-British and earlier occupation. {3}

<1> XX-XXX-XXXX, NMR SY 5986/1 (10190 ORACLE2 ) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11675.

<2> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1071-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11629.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 625 (Monograph). SDO150.

'GROUP (4): PORTESHAM WITHY BED, N. of (SY 58 NE; 593863; Plates 140, 233). 'Celtic' fields, partly overlain by strip lynchets, and strip lynchets which probably obliterate 'Celtic' fields, almost all ploughed over in narrow rig, cover a re-entrant valley of about 30 acres. Other strip lynchets lie immediately N., W., and E. of the Withy Bed (see Portesham (32a)), and there are traces of scarped fields, almost destroyed, extending on higher ground W. and E. from the valley. A terraceway climbs the steep natural scarp N. from the Withy Bed where finds of pottery, iron, bronze, bone and flint (Dorset Procs. XXXVII (1916), xxxix), now lost, suggest Romano-British and earlier occupation.
Only one certainly complete 'Celtic' field, of about ⅓ acre, is detectable at the head of the valley on the W. side, where 'Celtic' field traces generally survive. The strip lynchets are confined to the valley floor and E. side where the treads are generally flat and the risers pronounced, indicating long usage. Some are high up the steep valley side on ledges. They appear to mark the limit of an open field extending from Portesham village. The narrow rig around 590860, which is set against a slope of 16½°, cuts across the end of a strip lynchet (cf. H. C. Bowen, Ancient Fields (1961), plate IIb). (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 2431: 3288–90.)'

Record last edited

Jun 30 2014 5:30PM