Monument record MDO2596 - Prehistoric field system, Sydling St Nicholas

Linear banked earthworks thought to be associated with a prehistoric field system of probable Iron Age/Romano-British date are visible on aerial photographs on Hog Hill, Sydling St Nicholas. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

Linear banked earthworks thought to be associated with a prehistoric field system of probable Iron Age/Romano-British date are visible on aerial photographs on Hog Hill, Sydling St Nicholas (2, 3). The features comprise of faint linear banks that form partial enclosures on a north-south and northeast-southwest alignment. They may be a continuation of an extensive prehisotric settlement and field system (MDO2595) on Buckland Hill to the north. Some of the features on the west side of Hog Hill may be of later origin, possibly post medieval trackways, but this is not certain. Some of the earthworks are recorded on the OS 1st Edition map, which also records the site of a 'British settlement' to the north (4).


Some of the features are still visible as earthworks and cropmarks on Google Earth imagery. They were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 234 (Monograph). SDO97.

d(22) Earthworks, on Hog Hill to the S. of (21), consist of three lengths of isolated banks, one on the parish boundary and two between the 600 and 700 ft. contours. The two latter have remains of ditches but both may be part of the same field-system as (21).

<2> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2378-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17068.

<3> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2379-80 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17066.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

Feb 23 2021 12:36PM