Monument record MDO2623 - Prehistoric field system, Sydling St Nicholas

Linear and curvilinear banked and ditched features associated with an extensive Iron Age/Romano-British field system are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs on East Hill, Sydling St Nicholas. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

(Centred at ST 623022) Field system plotted from air photographs. <1>

There are the remains of a Celtic field system on East Hill. <2>

ST 620026 'Celtic' fields on the chalk spur of East Hill covering at least 100 acres and now generally under pasture. The field banks on the flat summit, due to frequent ploughing, have been reduced to little more than crop-marks. Considerable banks remain on the sides of the spur. The general line of the 'Celtic' fields are roughly N-S, being rectangular and commonly 70 yds by 50 yds. <3>

The field system occupies 20 hectares of the W, S and E slopes of East Hill. The rectilinear fields of about .35 hectares are bounded by banks averaging 4.0m wide and 0.5m high with lynchets up to 2.0m high.

The area is under rough pasture and scrub. The system is indistinct on RAF APs but clear on OS. <4>

Linear and curvilinear banked and ditched features associated with an extensive Iron Age/Romano-British field system are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs on East Hill, Sydling St Nicholas <6-10>. The features comprise a series of irregular enclosures and possibly associated trackways that extend across the southern end of East Hill and into the fields within Fisher's Bottom, covering an approximate area of around 650m by 500m. The earthworks are situated adjacent to another area of Iron Age/Romano-British fields to the west (MDO43081). The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Frome AIM project.

The features are still visible as earthworks and cropmarks on 2002 Google Earth imagery and 2009 PGA imagery <9-10>.

<1> Atkinson, R J C, 1949, Annotated Record Map Rec. 6 (R J C Atkinson 1 3 49) (Map). SWX2397.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 236 (Monograph). SDO97.

<3> Unpublished revision RCHME Dorset I (West) Undated (Sydling St Nicholas file) (Unpublished document). SDO13182.

<4> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F1 NJA 28-SEP-76 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<4.1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 4379-80 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18849.

<4.2> Ordnance Survey, OS 74/087 67 and 77 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18850.

<5> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<6> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RS 4379-80 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17038.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 13-MAR-95, OS 95033 V 074 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17059.

<8> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2382-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17053.

<9> XX-XXX-2002, Google Earth (Aerial Photograph). SDO11868.

<10> Pan Government Agreement, 07-JAN-2009, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery (Aerial Photograph). SDO16858.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199204 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 21 2022 4:50PM