Monument record MDO39525 - Post medieval or modern pits and ditches, Barnfield Heath, Christchurch

A scatter of small post medieval or modern pits and ditches on Barnfield Heath are visible on 1940s aerial photographs and were digitally plotted during the Dorset Stour NMP.

A scatter of small post medieval or modern pits and ditches on Barnfield Heath are visible on 1940s aerial photographs (1).

The features are broadly considered likely to be associated with wider wartime military activity on the heathland north of Christchurch.The features vary in form, between small circular pits, small ditches or trenches with cast up earth banks and slightly irregular pits with cast up earth surrounding them. The features may represent military features such as weapons pits and dugouts or trenches. Alternatively, some of these features may be possible bomb craters or older small extractive or gravel pits.

The pits and ditches were sited on open heathland in 1949 (1). Many are still clearly visible on an aerial photograph taken in 1956 (2). They may survive under heathland scrub but are no longer obviously visible on current Google Earth imagery.

The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

<1> Royal Air Force, 12-DEC-46, RAF/CPE/UK/1893 RP 3171 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15486.

<2> Royal Air Force, 25-JAN-56, RAF/540/1789 V 28 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15487.

Record last edited

Sep 29 2017 10:57AM