Monument record MDO24156 - Field system in the Valley of the Stones, Littlebredy

'A'. Various parts of area annotated "Celtic fields". AT SY 59368785 and SY 59398805 is the comment "Celtic banks, V.L.O., clearly seen 6pm, summertime, 17.4.24." <1>

'B'. (Area centred SY 57568821) Field systems plotted from air photos. <2>

'A'. There are considerable remains of 'Celtic' field systems on the two sides of the Valley of Stones, at the head of the re-entrant at the N of Crow Hill, on the W of New Barton Farm and to the S and SW of Heart Coppice. <3>

'A'. Centred at SY 595877. An extensive Iron Age/Romano British field system under pasture. Generally the field banks and lynchets are well pronounced, and form typical Iron Age/Romano British fields. See air photographs RAF CPE/UK/1824 3301-3, CPE/UK/1824 4282 and St J BJ/14-16. <4>

'B'. An E-W ridge centred at Tenants Hill shows evidence of Iron Age/Romano British type lynchets and field banks under grass. The field banks form small square fields, and the lynchets are intermittent, reaching a height of 2.0m to 2.5m. See air photograph RAF CPE/UK/1824 3304. <5>

SY 595872 - SY 613893. 'Celtic' field remains, some very well preserved, cover about 450 acres between Little Bredy Farm, Black Down Barn, Sheep Down and Loscombe (see SY 68 NW 36 for the field system within Winterbourne Steepleton parish). Similar remains continue W and SW., and probably a further 100 acres of remains have been destroyed within the area. Strip lynchets run into the 'Celtic' fields from West and Northeast, while broad ridge and furrow, partly defaced by later narrow rig, crosses them at the extreme W just off the plan (see illust). Despite the abundance of sarsens no field sides are visibly marked by them but some lynchets probably incorporate walls for marking out fields. Occasionally field sides running up and down slopes are marked by low banks. The following monuments are apparently contemporary with some phase of the 'Celtic' fields: enclosure and dyke (SY 68 NW 9); enclosures (RCHM Littlebredy 7a and 7b) (SY 58 NE 32); hut circle (SY 58 NE 58); settlement (SY 58 NE 59).

South of Little Bredy Farm, near the west end of the group, a complex of slight ditched banks, probably relatively recent, cuts across 'Celtic' field lynchets and further banks divide the hilltop and overlie 'Celtic' field remains on the spur top north of the farm. In the Valley of Stones at least seventeen complete 'Celtic' fields may be traced, ranging in area from 1/2 acre to 11/4 acres. They are bounded mostly by lynchets up to 12ft high, but occasionally by low banks. At the foot of the west side of the valley is a band of sarsens, the product of clearance, against which lynchets have formed.

On Black Down the ground above 600ft was apparently not much ploughed in the 'Celtic' field phase, but is greatly disturbed. At (g) on plan (SY 602878) a bank appears to run NNE among deep-cut hollow-ways while a slighter bank runs NW at right angles to it. 100 yds further S a terrace-way runs approx. N to S for 150 yds above well developed 'Celtic' fields. <7>

An extensive later prehistoric or Roman field system, visible as earthworks on aerial photographs <8-14> at Crow Hill and Valley of Stones, Longbredy. The system appears to have been been reused in the medieval period. The features were digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Crawford, O G S, Annotated record map 6 inch, 17.4.24 (Map). SWX7265.

<2> Atkinson, R J C, 1949, spec 6 inch (RJCA 1.3.49) (Map). SWX1583.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 39 (Monograph). SDO97.

<4> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 31-MAR-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<5> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F2 NVQ 12-APR-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<6> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1967 (Map). SWX1540.

'B'. (Centred SY 572883 and SY 576881) Lynchets (NR)

<7> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 624-5 (Monograph). SDO150.

<8> 26-MAR-1968, NMR SY 5987/2-6 (178/97-100) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11663.

<9> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 3099-100 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11648.

<10> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 3098-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11657.

<11> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1070-1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11672.

<12> Royal Air Force, 04-NOV-1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1824 3301-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11649.

<13> 01-SEP-2004, NMR SY 5987/43-5 (23707/08-10) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11650.

<14> 30-NOV-1980, MAL 8038 172 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11696.

<15> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<16> National Record of the Historic Environment, 450289 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 5 2024 3:08PM