Monument record MDO40094 - Iron Age and Romano-British trackway, Matterley Drove Farm, Woodlands

A linear ditched feature is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs to the south of Matterley Drove Farm. It is considered to be a later prehistoric or Roman trackway and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Stour NMP.

SU 0247 0909. A linear feature, probably representing a Prehistoric or Roman trackway, is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs, and has been mapped by EH's Knowlton Circles Project. The trackway is 587m long (SU 0217 0923 - SU 0247 0909 - SU 0266 0895), defined by ditches, with a central hollow or traffic rut. It appears to be associated with a group of rectilinear enclosures (SU 00 NW 100) and two possible square barrows (SU 00 NW 98, SU 00 NW 99). <1-3>

A linear ditched feature is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs to the south of Matterley Drove Farm <4-6>. It is considered to be a later prehistoric or Roman trackway and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Stour NMP. The linear runs for over 600m in a roughly easterly direction towards the field system and settlement described in records MDO6491 and MDO40090.

<1> National Monuments Record, 18-MAR-1970, NMR 172/183-7 (NMR SU 0209/5) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15730.

<2> Boyden, J R, 02-JUL-1976, NMR SU 0209/7/2 (JRB 3097/2) (Aerial Photograph). SDO19478.

<3> 06-SEP-1989, NMR SU 0209/17 (NMR 4554/36) (Aerial Photograph). SDO19479.

<4> Dorset County Council, 2002, Dorset County Council Vertical Photograph (Aerial Photograph). SDO13401.

Iron Age and Romano British Settlement Area.
Aerial photographs of the field (RCHM and DCM) show a possible enclosure ditch and other activity in this field. Fieldwalking produced Iron Age and Romano-British pottery, three fragments of quernstones, and a La Tène I bronze fibula. The brooch, which appears to be Hull’s type 1A (Hattatt 1985, 10-12), has a loosely-wound spring, highly-arched bow, and a foot disc with a mineral mount. It has been broken at the second coil of the spring.'

<5> 18-MAR-1970, NMR 179/177-80 (NMR SU 0208/1) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15731.

<6> John Boyden, 02-JUL-1976, JRB 3097/2 (NMR SU0209/7) (Aerial Photograph). SDO15721.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AF1339047 (Index). SDO14738.

EH: Knowlton Circles, Dorset

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1409922 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 19 2023 8:55AM