Monument record MDO3326 - Enclosure near Lankham Eweleaze, Winterbourne Abbas

A roughly rectangular enclosure in the form of an earthwork bank and external ditch, situated on a spur and overlying a prehistoric field system. Interpreted as a settlement of probable Romano-British date.

The north-eastern half of this enclosure has been reduced by ploughing to low and unsurveyable scarps, and the south-western half has been entirely destroyed. Vestiges of Celtic fields are visible over a wide area, mostly as inconspicuous rounded scarps. <2>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 504-505 (Monograph). SDO150.

'(55) ENCLOSURE, irregular and now flattened (SY 69 SW; 60359175), lies near Lankham Eweleaze on the W. shoulder of a spur falling gently to the 600 ft. contour. The subsoil is thick Clay-with-Flints. The enclosure (Figs. p. 507, opp. p. 623) was built over 'Celtic' fields of Ancient Field Group (1), and the N., W. and S. sides are lynchets, low on the S., 5 ft. to 8 ft. high on the W. and built up into a slight bank on the N. The S. part of the bowed E. side had a bank 30 ft. wide and 4 ft. high above a wide external ditch. A later, very slight, bank and ditch run up on to the S.E. corner. In the interior a slight scarp, possibly an earlier lynchet, runs E. to W.; its ends correspond with changes in the form of the E. and W. sides. A very slight scarp runs W.S.W. away from the N. side. The earthwork may be unfinished and is possibly a settlement area of the Romano-British period. Broad ridge-and-furrow, probably mediaeval, lies N., E. and probably S. of it.'

<1.1> Royal Air Force, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 3143-44 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20227.

<2> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 08-APR-81 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453820 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 20 2023 3:59PM