Monument record MDO37361 - Linear boundary north of Bishops Court Farm, Shapwick

An irregular, broadly ENE-WSW, linear boundary is visible on aerial photographs north of Bishops Court Farm. Subsequent excavation at its eastern end revealed a ditch terminal along its south side. A single sherd of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery was recovered from the filling of this ditch. The boundary is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs running for nearly 900m, it was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. The record for this monument has been created with support from Wessex Water.

A later prehistoric ditched boundary extends for over 900m and is recorded as cropmarks on 2015 Historic England oblique aerial photographs <1.1>. It follows a sinuous but mostly NE-SW route. There is a cluster of ditched enclosures attached to the north side of the boundary at its northern/eastern end. There is another enclosure attached to the north side of the boundary towards its southern/western end.

The boundary is centred at ST 9353 0336. It extends between ST 9383 0350 and ST 9306 0303. The cluster of enclosures is at ST 9359 0337. The other enclosure is at ST 9314 0317.

The boundary and enclosures are also recorded on Google 2005 and 2017 Google Earth vertical aerial photographs and the boundary is visible on 2018, 2014, 2009, and 2002 Google Earth layers. <1>

An irregular linear boundary, aligned broadly ENE-WSW, visible as a pale cropmark and soilmark flanked to the north and south by diffuse zones of darker growth in freshly sprouted crop north of Bishops Court Farm, Shapwick. The monument comprises straight and gently curvilinear sections with some irregular staggered offsets , and can be traced over a distance of c 840 metres within the target field (from ST93831 03504 to ST 93118 03119). The continuation of the boundary to the east and west remains unresolved as crops in these fields were unresponsive and other aerial photographs add no additional information. <3>

Geophysical survey along the proposed route of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme in 2012 mapped a positive linear anomaly (Anomaly 263) at the eastern end of this feature. Further positive geophysical anomalies (247, 250) formed a rather irregular discontinuous linear incorporating a right angled bend, which appears to form part of a small rectangular enclosure (with anomalies 248 and 253). The relationship between this linear and the enclosure is not certain. <4>

The subsequent evaluation excavation along the proposed Corfe Mullen to Salisbury pipeline revealed a ditch terminal on the line of the geophysical anomaly 263. This ditch (102003) was aligned roughly NE-SW and appeared to terminate in a rounded terminal to the north east. It was 3.3m wide and perhaps 1.8m deep. This ditch was not fully excavated and the complete profile is not known. The upper 1.1m of the ditch was filled with a series of silts and layers of more flinty soil. The excavators postulated a bank on the northern side of the ditch. A single sherd of fine sandy/sparse flint tempered Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery, a single worked flint together with three possible slingstones were recovered from one of the upper fills of the ditch. <5>

The record for this monument has been created with support from Wessex Water.

The boundary is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (5-6) running for nearly 900m, it was digitally plotted during the Dorset Middle Stour Catchment AI&M Project. It is incorporated into the enclosure described in MDO37365.

<1> Winton, Helen, RCHME/EH/HE Aerial Photographers comment HW (Verbal communication). SDO18745.

<1.1> 23-APR-2015, Historic England Archive 29560_029-044 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19411.

<1.2> Google Earth, 2002, Google Earth imagery (Aerial Photograph). SDO15980.

<1.3> Google Earth, 01-JAN-2005, Google Earth 2005 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18557.

<1.4> Google Earth, 2009, Google Earth 2009 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15393.

<1.5> Google Earth, 2014, Google Earth 2014 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15450.

<1.6> Google Earth, 2017, Google Earth 2017 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15388.

<1.7> Google Earth, 2018, Google Earth 2018 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16663.

<2> Papworth, M, 1994, Shapwick Parish, Kingston Lacy Estate, Wessex Region, 72 (Unpublished document). SDO14228.

Air photographs show the existence of linear ditches and banks (RAF CPE/UK/1893 3091-2; NMR ST9303/1 & ST9303/2) on the western edge of the parish. They probably represent the position of Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romano British fields and property boundaries. There are also smaller enclosures associated with the field system, one at ST93150312 may define a prehistoric occupation site. There are also two Bronze Age ring ditches within the field system 112,055 and 112,216.

<3> GetMapping, 2005, Digital vertical aerial photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDO12563.

<4> Marsh, B and Biggs, M, 2012, Geophysical Survey Report Corfe Mullen to Salisbury WTS, 28 (Unpublished document). SDO14089.

<5> Havard, T and Nicholl, M, 2013, Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Transfer Scheme, Wessex Water, Dorset and Wiltshire: Archaeological Evaluation, 12-13 (Unpublished document). SDO14094.

A north-east/south-west orientated ditch terminus 102003 (Fig 42, Section 12) was located centrally within Trench 102 and corresponded to the north-eastern end of a linear anomaly identified by geophysical survey and a linear feature visible on satellite imagery. It measured 3.3m in width and at least 1.1m in depth. A fence pin pushed into an unexcavated fill in the base of the excavated section suggested the ditch was a further 0.7m deep. The earliest identified fill, silting fill 102004 was sealed by erosion fill 102005, silting fill 102006, another erosion fill 102007 and finally by silting fill 102008. The profile of erosion fills 102005 and 102007 suggest the presence of a bank on the northern side of the ditch. A single sherd of fine sandy/sparse flint tempered Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery, a single worked flint together with three possible slingstones were recovered from fill 102006.

<6> Historic England Archive, 23-APR-2015, HEA 29560/039 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18302.

<7> Historic England Archive, 23-APR-2015, HEA 29560/038 (Aerial Photograph). SDO18304.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1622704 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 13 2023 7:21PM