Monument record MDO28497 - Linear ditch, Knoll Hill, Woodlands

A short section of single linear ditch is visible on 2005 DCC VAPs. It runs NW-SE for 250m and parallel with several other prehistoric boundary ditches (e.g.MDO6463); it may be contemporary with these or alternatively a field boundary of historic date. It was digitally plotted during the Dorset Stour NMP.

'(66) Linear ditches, ploughed out, but visible on an air photograph (N.M.R., SU 0309/I), run for nearly 1,000 yds. From S. of Knoll Hill, N.W. to a point beside the Cranborne Wimborne road, just S. of South Circle (03050935-02400987). Two almost parallel ditches, 20 ft. to 30 ft. apart, follow a sinuous course across a gentle W. slope of the Chalk. Their line is continued W. to the flood-plain of the R. Allen by a broad hollow-way, probably of mediaeval or later date. Whether there is any connection between it and the ditches has not been established'. (1)

Linear cropmarks to the north of, and roughly parallel with, linears recorded by the RCHME (Woodlands 66). These features are visible on digital aerial photographs taken in 2005, but the cropmarks can be seen only in one field. The northernmost is relatively straight and more distinct than the other, which follows a rather more irregular course and is less distinct. The inner of the two sets of linear features are roughly 40 metres apart.

The given polygon for this record is for a short section of single linear visible on 2005 DCC VAPs. It runs NW-SE for 250m and parallel with several other prehistoric boundary ditches (e.g.MDO6463); it may be contemporary with these or alternatively a field boundary of historic date. It was digitally plotted during the Dorset Stour NMP.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 116 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(66) LINEAR DITCHES, ploughed out, but visible on an air photograph (N.M.R., SU 0309/1), run for nearly 1,000 yds. from S. of Knoll Hill, N.W. to a point beside the Cranborne-Wimborne road, just S. of South Circle (03050935-02400987). Two almost parallel ditches, 20 ft. to 30 ft. apart, follow a sinuous course across a gentle W. slope of the Chalk. Their line is continued W. to the flood-plain of the R. Allen by a broad hollow-way, probably of medieval or later date. Whether there is any connection between it and the ditches has not been established.’

<2> GetMapping, 2005, Digital vertical aerial photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDO12563.

Record last edited

Feb 23 2018 8:26PM