Monument record MDO37367 - Late Bronze Age enclosure ditch?, Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme Evaluation Trench 74

A V-shaped ditch was found in evaluation trench 74 of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme route. There was a suggestion of a former bank on the western side of this ditch and its upper fill produced a number of sherds of Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age pottery. It corresponded with a curvilinear geophysical anomaly which had an apparent entrance gap. The southern linear feature potentially corresponds with the nortern end of a ditch recorded under MDO44440 during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project, and may be associated. The record for this monument has been created with support from Wessex Water.

A V-shaped ditch (74004) aligned roughly NE-SW was found in the central part of evaluation trench 74 of the archaeological evaluation of the Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Water Transfer Scheme route. This ditch was 2.9m wide and 1.04m deep. It was filled with a series of lower chalky fills and upper silty soil layers. There was some suggestion that there had been a bank on the western side which had eroded into the ditch. A total of 30 sherds of Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pottery was found in one of the upper fills and was interpreted as having been deliberately tipped into the ditch. There was a later small undated ditch (74012) along the western side of the ditch. [1]

Ditch 74004 corresponded with geophysical anomaly 236 which was a curvilinear positive linear anomaly which had an apparent gap midway along its length. [2]

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

The southern linear feature potentially corresponds with the nortern end of a ditch recorded under MDO44440 during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project, and may be associated.

<1> Havard, T and Nicholl, M, 2013, Corfe Mullen to Salisbury Transfer Scheme, Wessex Water, Dorset and Wiltshire: Archaeological Evaluation, 13 (Unpublished document). SDO14094.

North-east/south-west orientated ditch 74004 (Fig. 43, Section 14) was located centrally within Trench 74 and corresponded with a linear anomaly depicted on the geophysical survey. It contained seven fills, the earliest fill 74005, with 74006, 74007, 74008, 74009, 74010 and final fill 74011. The earliest chalk rich fills, 74005 and 74006, within 74004, suggested several phases of bank erosion from the western side of the ditch. A total of 30 sherds of Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age pottery was recovered from a later fill 74009, which appeared to have been deliberately tipped into the ditch. A later parallel ditch re-cut 74012 with a single fill 74013 cut the final fill 74011. No artefactual evidence was recovered from 74013. Ditch 74003 (Fig. 43, Section 13) was located towards the south-eastern extent of the trench and its location did not correspond to any anomaly identified by geophysical survey. No artefactual material was recovered from its single fill 74002.

<2> Marsh, B and Biggs, M, 2012, Geophysical Survey Report Corfe Mullen to Salisbury WTS (Unpublished document). SDO14089.

Record last edited

Oct 2 2023 4:42PM