Monument record MDO29228 - Post medieval extractive pits, Hill Bottom, Worth Matravers

(Centred SY 962779) Possible Late Bronze Age site. <1>

Centred at SY 962779, on the edge of an extensive field system and very slightly below the southern crest of a steep hill, are three irregular hollows, A, B & C bounded from `H' to `E' by a gently sloping glacis type bank average height 2.0m., from `E' to `F' by a steep glacis type bank 2.2.m. high, from `F' to `X' by a glacis type bank varying in height from 0.6 to 0.3m. and from `X' to `G' by a glacis type bank 0.1m. high. From `G'
to `H' the land is flat. Internal banks average 0.5m. high and appear composed largely of small stones.

The whole forms a fairly level platform cut out of the hillside which falls steeply away on all but the Northern side.

Abutting the `enclosure' on the south east is a circular hollow `D' with a diameter of 8.0m. which has a depth below the northern crest of 1.3m. and below the southern crest of 0.1m.

A trial trench 1.0m. wide and 7.0m. long was dug from`X' to `Y'. The lightly coloured surface soil varied in depth from 1 1/2" at `X' to 7" at `Y'. Beneath was an apparently undisturbed layer of soil and many stones of varying sizes which continued to at least a further foot in depth at which point digging ceased. Trial holes were dug in `A', `B' & `D' and produced similar conditions to the trench.

There were no finds of any description and the soil was of consistent light brown throughout.

It seems likely that the hollows result from the extraction of the stone leaving a surface appearance of a Late Bronze Age site. See survey. <2>

These scoops are now covered by a dense blanket of thicket, gorse and scrub making close inspection impossible. Their exposed hillslope position on the side of a valley open to the sea makes it an unlikely settlement site. No survey action. <3>

Post medieval extractive pits at Hill Bottom, Worth Matravers. The features are visible as earthworks on lidar <4-5>. The site was digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

Millar, W T, Field Investigators Comments WTM, F1 WTM 15-AUG-52 (Index). SDO19002.

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F2 JR 25-AUG-52 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3> Fletcher, Martin, Field investigator's comments MJF, F3 MJF 25-APR-86 (Unpublished document). SDO17630.

<4> Channel Coastal Observatory, 23-MAR-2008, Lidar (Photograph). SDO12878.

<5> Channel Coastal Observatory, 25-FEB-2009, Lidar (Aerial Photograph). SDO12879.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 456432 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 9 2022 6:28PM