Monument record MDO3104 - Cross dyke on Fordington Fields, Winterborne Monkton

A linear earthwork, part of a cluster of monuments of various dates located north of Maiden Castle. The earthwork runs roughly north-south, and appears to change direction slightly to avoid one of the nearby barrows. In the absence of excavation, its date is unclear. Visible on aerial photographs as cropmark/ earthwork; digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project. A linear earthwork, part of a cluster of monuments of various dates located north of Maiden Castle. The earthwork runs roughly north-south, and appears to change direction slightly to avoid one of the nearby barrows. RCHME survey in the 1950s recorded it as an earthwork bank 540 yards long with a ditch on its western side. The northernmost stretch, some 210 yards, was already flattened by ploughing and was visible only as a cropmark. The remainder had been severely reduced by ploughing, and one section was measured before ploughing as 18 feet wide and 1.5 feet high. On a subsequent occasion, after ploughing, it measured about 36 feet wide, with the ditch about 18 feet wide. In 1980, Ordnance Survey field investigation recorded a reduced, spread bank 12 metres wide and 0.3 metres high, with the ditch 6 metres wide and 0.2 metres deep. Three gaps were visible along the course of the earthwork which may be the result of modern ploughing. Scheduled. In the absence of excavation, its date is unclear. It appears to post-date one of the nearby barrows, and a later prehistoric (middle Bronze Age to Iron Age) seems most plausible.

Cross Ridge Dyke traces of bank and ditch 66808932 to 66798902) lies between 200 ft. and 300 ft. above O.D., spanning the forward slope of a low broad spur between two gullies; the bank with a ditch on its W. side, now in arable land and almost totally flattened, ran approximately N.-S. for 1620 ft. The northern 630 ft. is visible on air photographs only A portion of mutilated bank measured before ploughing was 18 ft. across and 1 1/2 ft. high; when later seen spread in plough-land the bank was about 36 ft. across and the ditch was 18 ft. across. Date and purpose are both unknown. The dyke changes direction as it passes a round barrow and is probably later than it. The form, with a ditch uphill, is unusual in this area but has affinities with cross-ridge dykes elsewhere, e.g. in Sussex, associated with 'Celtic' fields. Immediately N. of it was 'Ditch End Furlong' of Fordington open field (Tithe map 1844). It was conceivably built to bound arable fields and to preserve the barrows (SY 68 NE 26) on the spur, whether in the mediaeval period or earlier. <2>

Reduced by ploughing to a bank 12.0m wide and 0.3m high, with ditch 6.0m wide and 0.2m deep. Visible at SY 6680 8921 with three gaps which may be the result of modern ploughing. Re-surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <3>

A linear earthwork, part of a cluster of monuments of various dates located north of Maiden Castle. The earthwork runs roughly north-south, and appears to change direction slightly to avoid one of the nearby barrows. RCHME survey in the 1950s recorded it as an earthwork bank 540 yards long with a ditch on its western side. The northernmost stretch, some 210 yards, was already flattened by ploughing and was visible only as a cropmark. The remainder had been severely reduced by ploughing, and one section was measured before ploughing as 18 feet wide and 1.5 feet high. On a subsequent occasion, after ploughing, it measured about 36 feet wide, with the ditch about 18 feet wide. In 1980, Ordnance Survey field investigation recorded a reduced, spread bank 12 metres wide and 0.3 metres high, with the ditch 6 metres wide and 0.2 metres deep. Three gaps were visible along the course of the earthwork which may be the result of modern ploughing.In the absence of excavation, its date is unclear. Visible on aerial photographs <8> as cropmark/ earthwork; digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 66798902 to SY 66808932) Earthwork (NR)

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 519 (Monograph). SDO150.

<2.1> Royal Air Force, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3259-60 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20286.

<3> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 12-SEP-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<4> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 698 (Index). SDO12304.

In 1980 this dyke still existed as an earthwork but when it was visited in 1983 it was under a grain crop and no earthworks were visible. 7/-/E

<6> Sparey Green, C J, 1986, 'Earthworks of Prehistoric or Early Roman Date in the Dorchester Area' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society. (Article in serial). SDO10086.

<7> National Monuments Record, 04-APR-1980, NMR SY6789/23/310 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11798.

<8> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 451953 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 25 2024 10:36AM