Monument record MDO40244 - Historic trackway, St Giles's Park, Wimborne St Giles

A long ditched and banked linear is visible at St Giles's Park on a 1989 aerial photograph and on current Lidar imagery. The feature runs northeast from Wimborne Lodge on the same alignment as a still extant trackway leading to Wimborne Lodge from the southwest, shown as a road on the OS 1st Edition map. The feature is presumed to represent a trackway of possible medieval or post medieval origin but potentially of much earlier prehistoric date. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A long ditched and banked linear is visible at St Giles's Park on a 1989 aerial photograph and on current Lidar imagery (1 and 2).

The feature runs northeast from Wimborne Lodge on the same alignment as a still extant trackway leading to Wimborne Lodge from the southwest, shown as a road on the OS 1st Edition map. The feature is presumed to represent a trackway of possible medieval or post medieval date but with potentially much earlier prehistoric origins. It continues the alignment of the present-day road section between Knowlton and Wimborne Lodge. This road alignment corresponds with similarly aligned linear features (MDO40151)to the west, possibly part of a coherent prehistoric landscape comprising trackways and field systems of possible Iron Age or Romano-British origin. It is possible that the present-day road follows the line of a much earlier routeway. It is also possible this routeway continued through what is now part of St Giles's Park. It is not clear whether this routeway was in current use into the medieval and post medieval period; it may have fallen into disuse as a result of the remodelling of the formal grounds of St Giles's House and was certainly out of use by the late 19th century as it does not feature on the OS 1st Edition map.

The routeway cannot be traced beyond the east boundary of St Giles's Park on available aerial photographs or Lidar imagery.

The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP.

<1> Ordnance Survey, 05-MAY-89, OS89135 V 284-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15761.

<2> XX-XXX-2015, Environment Agency DTM Lidar 1m (Aerial Photograph). SDO15442.

Record last edited

Mar 7 2018 2:17PM