Monument record MDO2516 - Prehistoric ditch, Stinsford

A ditch recorded during work on the Eagle Lodge to Forston Trunk Main in 1984. The ditch was U-shaped in section and at least 6 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep, cut into chalk on an eroded slope and sealed by later deposits. No dating material was found but the archaeologists who recorded this feature felt it was of probable prehistoric date, and an enclosure or property boundary.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1985, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1984, 115-116 (Serial). SDO84.

‘… Related to the colluvium and the strip terraces in Coker’s Coombe were two large ditches which were observed and recorded in the pipe-line section. These two ditches could be seen to run roughly north-east to south-east with the contours and along either side of the coombe.
Ditch at SY 69789163: At least 6 metres wide and at least 1.5 metres deep with shallow sloping sides (30°), the upper fill comprised chalk free clay silts and the lower clay silts contained chalk clay and flint. The ditch cut through a vertical-sided chalk-filled pit with a ledge at a depth of 0.75 metres, unknown depth. Both were cut into chalk on an eroded slope. These features lie along the south side of a quarry hollow (OS map). Thirty metres to the east of these ditches, the pipe-line cut through an 18th/19th century farm building sited on a flat chalk terrace (SY 69839163). … No dateable material was recovered from these ditches but on the basis of the upper silt soils and the absence of Roman and Medieval material, they can perhaps be placed in the prehistoric period and interpreted as enclosure or property boundaries.’

Record last edited

Apr 8 2013 5:39PM