Monument record MDO3507 - Combs Ditch, Anderson

A linear bank and ditch. Limited excavation suggests that its latest form is a late Roman construction, at which time it may have had a defensive function. It developed from a prehistoric, possibly Bronze Age or Iron Age, field boundary which was later enlarged. The long linear earthwork is visible as low earthworks on lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM.

Combs Ditch, ST 85050217 to ST 88710000, a linear dyke some 2 3/4 miles long, occupies a tactical position on a broad ridge between the River Stour and the Winterborne brook. It consists of a bank with a ditch on the NE side. The bank varies from 18ft to 28ft in width and from 1 1/2ft to 4 1/2ft in height above ground, reaching a maximum of 7 1/2ft above the present ditch bottom E of East Down Plantation. The ditch varies in width from 16ft near the SE end to 28ft at the NW end, averaging about 23ft for much of its length. The ends of the dyke are not entirely convincing, and it may originally have been longer than it is now. A counterscarp bank by East Down Plantation, up to 22ft wide and 3 1/2ft high, is separated from the ditch by a berm 9ft wide. NW of Great Coll Wood, in Spetisbury parish, a 40 yd length of bank, 15ft wide and 2ft high, on the outer lip of the ditch, is less certainly an original feature. (For further details, see annotated plan). Excavations by RCHM in 1965 showed that the dyke was prehistoric in origin, but of a late Roman or later period in its final form. The scale of the earliest structure suggests that the dyke was originally no more than a boundary, but by the end of the Roman period it had become a formidable defensive earthwork, and there can be little doubt that it represents a further line of defence of Romano-British Dorset after Bokerley Dyke had been broken down by the Saxons. It probably lasted only for a short time as a line of defence, for the Saxons appear to have reached the Dorchester area soon after AD 650. <4-5>

The long linear prehistoric earthwork is visible as low earthworks on lidar imagery <6> running along the Combs Ditch. It comprises an intermittent bank and ditch and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM. It runs for over 4km from ST 85111 02129 in the northwest to ST 88705 0000 in the southeast.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1931, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1930, 59-74 (Serial). SDO34.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1965, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1964, 112 (Serial). SDO64.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1968 (Map). SWX1540.

(Centred ST 8600) Combs Ditch (NR) (three times)

<4> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 313-314 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘(19) COMBS DITCH (85050217–88710000), a linear dyke, follows a sinuous course from N.W. to S.E., between 300 ft. and 400 ft. above O.D., along the broad Chalk ridge between the Winterborne brook and the R. Stour. The dyke now extends from Whatcombe Down in the N.W. to Great Coll Wood, Sturminster Marshall, in the S.E., a distance of some 2¾ miles. For most of its length it forms the parish boundary between Winterborne Whitechurch, Winterborne Kingston and Anderson on the S.W. and Charlton Marshall and Spetisbury on the N.E.
The dyke consists of a bank with a ditch on the N.E. side. The bank varies from 18 ft. to 28 ft. in width and from 1½ ft. to 4½ ft. in height above ground; it reaches a maximum of 7½ ft. above the present ditch-bottom E. of East Down Plantation. The ditch varies in width from 16 ft. near the S.E. end to 28 ft. at the N.W. end but it averages about 23 ft. for much of its length. A counterscarp bank by East Down Plantation, up to 22 ft. wide and 3½ ft. high above ground level, is separated from the lip of the ditch by a berm 9 ft. across. N.W. of Great Coll Wood, in Spetisbury parish, a 40 yd. length of bank, 15 ft. wide and 2 ft. high, on the outer lip of the ditch, is less certainly an original feature; no comparable remains occur elsewhere along the dyke.
The ends of the dyke are not entirely convincing and it may originally have been longer than it is now. To the N.E., on Whatcombe Down, beyond a length which has been destroyed by ploughing but which is visible on air photographs (R.A.F. CPE/UK 1934: 1137–9), the dyke bends sharply S.W. for 70 yds. and then regains its general alignment before stopping at a hedge. Beyond the hedge is cultivated land; firstly the strip fields of Whatcombe (18) and, further, the fields of Nicholson in Winterborne Clenston (6) (see p. 297); no dyke is visible in the arable but persistent cultivation for over a thousand years may well have destroyed all surface traces. Towards the S.E. end, in Great Coll Wood in Sturminster Marshall parish, the dyke is crossed by a small bank and ditch of later date, the boundary between the parishes of Sturminster Marshall, Anderson and Spetisbury. The S. continuation of this feature is sometimes mistaken for an extension of Combs Ditch; in fact the true ditch continues in a straight line for about 200 yds. before fading out in dense undergrowth. There are numerous breaks in the dyke, but none is certainly original.
The dyke is in contact with 'Celtic' fields in two areas. On Whatcombe Down, the line of the 70 yd. length of bank that runs S.W. is continued by a lynchet, and it may itself be on a lynchet although modern disturbance renders the sequence uncertain. The presence of 'Celtic' fields might account for the double bend in the dyke; there is no other obvious explanation. Further S.E., between Charlton and Muston Downs, two low banks, probably the sides of 'Celtic' fields, run up to the dyke on the N. and appear to be cut by its ditch. They probably formed part of 'Celtic' Field Group (66) (see p. 343), on Muston Down to the S. There, the fields are associated with a bank about 12 ft. across which runs along the E. side of East Down Plantation, immediately behind the bank of Combs Ditch. The dyke diverges from the main dyke where it turns E.S.E. and continues for about 40 yds., with a small ditch on the E.; it is possible that it represents a marking-out earthwork for the main dyke.
An excavation some 40 yds. E. of the S.E. corner of East Down Plantation was carried out by this Commission in 1965. A series of five turf-lines within the bank indicated successive enlargement over a long period. A single large post had stood in the top of the bank; it was a late feature if not the last in the sequence. The removal of the front of the bank to make a berm 5 ft. wide, cut 1 ft. into the Chalk bedrock between the bank and the inner edge of the ditch, was probably also a late development. The ditch itself was 17 ft. wide and 5½ ft. deep, with a V-shaped profile. Iron Age 'A' sherds in the buried ground surface beneath the banks provided a terminus post quem, but molluscan evidence suggested no cultivation before the dyke was built. Sherds of the 3rd–4th century A.D. behind the bank, and probably ante-dating its final reconstruction, were the only other evidence of date. Hence it appears that Combs Ditch is prehistoric in origin, but of a late Roman or later period in its final form. The scale of the earliest structure suggests that the dyke was originally no more than a boundary; by the end of the Roman period, however, it had become a formidable defensive earthwork. (Hutchins I, 192; H. Sumner, Local Papers (1931), 89–105; Dorset Procs. LII (1930), 59–74; 86 (1964), 112.)
'Celtic' Fields, see p. 343, Groups (64), (66).
Monuments (20–26), Round Barrows
Of the seven barrows in the parish, monument (20) forms part of a scatter that is continued on Roke Down, Bere Regis (Dorset II, p. 436); monuments (21) and (22) form part of the Deverel Down group in Milborne St. Andrew (p. 182).
Barrows shown on the Tithe Map of 1839 at 85700176 and 86120135 have now been destroyed. In 1864 William Shipp opened a barrow, possibly (25), on 'Whitechurch Down' (now East Down) close to Combs Ditch. At the centre, under a flint cairn, a deep circular cist was cut into the natural Chalk; it contained a primary cremation together with nine 'rudely chipped arrow heads' in a large 'bucket' urn. Four inhumations, one crouched and three extended, were found above the cairn and a small urn was found just below the surface on the S. side of the mound (C.T.D., Pt. 2, No. 41; Ant. J. XIII (1933), 448). A barrow at Whatcombe, possibly (26), was opened in 1898 by J. C. Mansel-Pleydell and W. Boyd Dawkins; the ditch was smoothed into a 'well-defined track by human feet circling round the burial mound' (Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society XVIII (1900), 122). Three barrows (86310078, 86330080 and 86340077) close together in East Down Plantation were destroyed in 1908 when East Down House was built. The northernmost, 30 ft. in diam. and 8 ft. high, was dug by J. C. Mansel-Pleydell and was found to contain a primary cremation in a large 'bucket' urn set in a central chalk-cut cist; above it lay a broken secondary globular urn; the mound appears to have contained a low internal flint wall, within which were extensive traces of fire. No details are available for the other two barrows, but a small 'bucket' urn and fragments of a globular urn may have come from them (Dorset Procs. LXXIV (1952), 104–6; Ant. J. XIII (1933), 448). Two globular urns from a barrow or barrows at South Farm (C.T.D., Pl. VI; Arch. J. CXIX (1962), 57) may have come from two barrows on the parish boundary, Winterborne Kingston (25) and (26).’

<4.1> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1138-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20454.

<5> Taylor, C C, 1970, Dorset (1970), 44 (Monograph). SWX2984.

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1992, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1991 (Serial). SDO91.

<6> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

<7> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/096 RCHME Inventory: Dorset III (Central) (Unpublished document). SDO17384.

<8> Historic England, Historic England Archive (Index). SDO14738.

882245 RCHME: Combs Ditch, Dorset. Inscription: Combs Ditch Cross section near East Down PlantationBibliographic References : 1) Pt 2, Monument (19)
AA72/01626 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01627 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01628 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01629 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01630 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01631 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01632 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01633 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01634 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01635 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
AA72/01636 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000
BB72/03732 CROSS SECTION OF LINEAR DYKE RUNNING ST 8505 0217 - 8871 0000 TAKEN 40 YARDS E. OF SOUTH EAST CORNER OF EAST DOWN PLANTATION
BB76/04851A PROFILES AT GREAT COLL WOOD,CHARLTON DOWN,EAST DOWN PLANTATION AND SOUTH EAST OF THE HIGH ROAD DRAWN BY HEYWOOD SUMNER. Photographer: UNKNOWNDonor: UNKNOWNCopyright: UNKNOWN
BB86/05291 PLAN OF LINEAR DYKE - 2.75 MILES LONG BEGAN AS A PROBABLE PREHISTORIC BOUNDARY LINE BUT BY THE ROMAN PERIOD HAD BECOME A FORMIDABLE DEFENSIVE EARTHWORK. Photographer: UNKNOWNDonor: UNKNOWNCopyright: UNKNOWN

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 205716 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 15 2024 12:18PM