Monument record MDO4006 - Cross dyke on Bell Hill, Ibberton

An Iron Age cross ridge dyke 690 metres north east of Baker's Folly running north west-south east across a spur of Bell Hill, on a gentle south western facing slope. The cross dyke has a bank, 8 metres wide and 1.2 metres high, with a ditch on its northern side, 8 metres wide and approximately 1 metre deep. There is a slight bank on the outer edge of the ditch, 1.5 metres wide and 0.3 metres high, visible along much of the length of the earthwork. The dyke has been truncated by the modern ridgeway track at a point where it kinks and changes direction slightly. The cross dyke is visible as ditched and banked earthworks on aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally recorded during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

This earthwork consists of a bank with a ditch on its east side, extending across a small ridge. The ditch averages 1.5m. deep and 9.0m. wide, and the bank 1.2m. high and 8.0m. wide. The north-west half of the dyke has been mutilated by a small parish boundary bank which runs along the bottom of the ditch of the main earthwork. Towards the middle of the dyke some 20.0m. have been destroyed or extremely mutilated by modern tracks; here the earthwork originally deviated slightly to the south, but the point of deviation cannot be traced. The south half of the work is similar in size and construction to the north part, and the whole bears a strong resemblance to the Iron Age type cross-ridge dyke. It is grass and heather covered. It is possible that the deviation during the earthwork was made to avoid the barrow immediately to the west (ST 70 NE 6). (2)

ST 79590807 - ST 79760787. Cross-dyke at about 800 ft. above OD (Ordnance datum) across the ridge top on ground falling south west from Bell Hill; the dyke faces higher ground to the north east. It is about 315 yds. long, with a bank some 22 ft. across and 3 to 4 ft. high and a ditch of about the same width and depth. Except towards the ends, a low counterscarp bank is visible; it is nowhere more than 1ft. high and 5ft. wide. There are three differently aligned lengths; at the north west end, where the dyke runs out on the steepening slope, a length of 165 yds. extends south east; a central length of about 33 yds is aligned north south; to the south is a length of some 116 yds running north-north-west to south-south-east and fading out on the well-marked shoulder of a south facing slope along which runs a track. The abrupt change of alignment where the present ridgeway track passes obliquely through the central length suggests an original entrance. The parish boundary with Okeford Fitzpaine is marked by a bank about 3ft wide and 1-2ft. high which runs along the ditch of the north length and continues down the hill. (3)

A cross dyke on the southwest end of Bell Hill, Ibberton, is visible as ditched and banked earthworks on aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery (Next Perspectives 2002; NMR 2007; EA 2018). The visible extent of the feature suggests a total length of around 386m. The feature was digitally recorded during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

National Monuments Record, 10-JAN-2007, NMR 24509/27 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21723.

Next Perspectives, XX-XXX-2002, Next Perspectives APGB imagery (Aerial Photograph). SDO21722.

Environment Agency, xx-xxx-2018, Environment Agency National Lidar Programme DTM 1M (Aerial Photograph). SDO21483.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 1 Inch to 1 mile, 1945 (Map). SDO17506.

(ST 79700800) Cross Dyke

<2> Quinnell, N V, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator's Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 26-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 125 (Monograph). SDO146.

<4> DOE, 1977, Scheduled Monument Notification DOE (IAM) AMs Eng 1977, 77 (Scheduling record). SDO17495.

ST 797080. Earthwork on Ibberton Long Down.

<5> DCMS, 1999, Scheduled Monument Notification 1999, 07-JUL-1999 (Scheduling record). SDO17351.

<6> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1963, Monuments Threatened or Destroyed. A Select List: 1956-1962, 14 (Monograph). SDO12558.

<7> Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 201733 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 18 2026 2:06PM