Monument record MDO2641 - Enclosure on Wardon Hill, Sydling St Nicholas

An enclosure visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The enclosure measures around 140 feet by 100 feet, with a ditch around it. A linear bank and ditch, interpreted as a possible trackway, lead away from the enclosure into an area of woodland. The features were digitally plotted from 1940s aerial photographs during the Dorset upper Frome AIM project.

ST 614027. At the north end of Warden Hill, there is an oval feature 140 ft by 100 ft with a 20 ft wide ditch and a bank and ditch leading eastwards into a wood. The whole is obscured by grass. A similar feature is visible on air photograph (a) to the north. The features may be related to the site on East Hill (ST 60 SW 20). <1>

The air photographs (b) show an area of downland pasture incorporating, at ST 61370274, the oval enclosure described in 1 and a bivallate track extending from it in an easterly direction to the edge of a coppice, a distance of 80m. The area is now under pasture but has been heavily cultivated since 1947 and the coppice cleared and afforested. There is no ground evidence of the features which may have been of Iron Age or Romano-British origin and they are not visible on the OS Aps ©. <2>

At the north end of Wardon Hill, there is an oval feature 140 ft by 100 ft with a 20 ft wide ditch and a bank and ditch leading eastwards into a wood.

The earthworks are visible on 1940s aerial photographs where they appear to comprise a 30m by 25m sub-circular banked enclosure with a partial external ditch approximately 2.5m wide <3>. Although slightly indistinct, there may be an additional section of linear bank on the southwest side, forming an entrance to the enclosure on the south side - although it may be a degraded section that is part of the main enclosure. A curvilinear double banked and ditched trackway runs from northwest to east along the north side of the enclosure into the top of Sydling Woods. The features were digitally plotted during the Dorset upper Frome AIM project.

The site is a solar farm on current Google Earth imagery and the features are no longer visible.

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, RCHM Ms File (unpublished revision of Dorset 1) (Unpublished document). SDO17382.

<1.1> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974, 4380, 4381 and 4382 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13181.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, 28-OCT-76 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

The air photographs (b) show an area of downland pasture incorporating, at ST 61370274, the oval enclosure described in 1 and a bivallate track extending from it in an easterly direction to the edge of a coppice, a distance of 80m. The area is now under pasture but has been heavily cultivated since 1947
and the coppice cleared and afforested. There is no ground evidence of the features which may have been of Iron Age or Romano-British origin and they are not visible on the OS APs (c).

<2.1> Ordnance Survey, OS 74/087/067 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13183.

<3> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-47, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 RS 4381-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO17004.

<4> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/088 RCHME Inventory: Dorset I (West) and Revision (Unpublished document). SDO17367.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199278 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 25 2022 1:02PM