Monument record MDO20952 - Linear feature, a possible approach route to Mount Pleasant, West Stafford

A substantial ditched linear feature, located to the east of Mount Pleasant henge enclosure, is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs. It may represent an approach route to the henge from the north-east.

A substantial ditched linear feature, located to the east of Mount Pleasant henge enclosure (MDO2890), is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial photographs {1}. The feature is up to 20 metres wide in places and runs in a northeasterly direction from a point outside the henge’s eastern entrance. It can be traced via several photographs for a distance of over 300 metres, before disappearing into the water meadows north of the railway line. Close to the henge, it appears as a cropmark but nearer to the railway line, close to the foot of the slope, it is visible as a distinct sunken or ‘hollow’ feature, picked out in shadow, on some of the early vertical APs. While perhaps of natural origin, the straightness of the edges in particular suggest that it may have been modified, if not created, by human agency. Its relationship with the henge is difficult to determine. It does not clearly link up with either the eastern or southeastern entrances. Indeed it appears to narrow and fade in an area marked by amorphous cropmarks of presumed ‘natural’ origin, making the precise form of this feature at its southwestern end rather difficult to determine with any great certainty. This feature may represent an approach route to the henge from the north-east, heading towards the henge’s eastern side. The cropmarks suggest a soil-filled hollow feature resembling a ditch, perhaps an enhanced natural hollow, leading from the valley of the Frome to the hilltop where, interestingly, it fails to link up precisely with any of the henge’s main entrances {2}.

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1971, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1970, 126 (Serial). SDO70.

<1> Royal Air Force, 17-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2018 4012-14 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10921.

<1> Barber, M, 2005, Mount Pleasant 2005 plot (Cartographic materials). SDO10978.

<2> Barber, M, 2008, Mount Pleasant Draft Archive Report 2008 (Unpublished document). SDO10981.

Record last edited

Jan 23 2025 9:57AM