Monument record MDO40352 - Possible medieval field boundaries, Wimborne St Giles

Banked linear earthworks to the west of Wimborne St Giles are visible on current Lidar imagery. The features may be field boundaries of probable medieval date, although an earlier (Iron Age to Romano-British), origin is possible. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

Banked linear earthworks to the west of Wimborne St Giles are visible on current Lidar imagery (1).

The features are broadly aligned within a field pattern of medieval origin to the west of Wimborne St Giles and may be field boundaries of probable medieval date, although an earlier (Iron Age to Romano-British) origin is also possible (there are extensive areas of late prehistoric fields to the west along the River Allen Valley). The more well-defined earthworks appear to run broadly northwest to southeast. Perpendicular to these, and possibly overlying them, are a number of less clearly defined banked linears that may be field boundaries but alternatively may be agricultural in origin.

The features may be associated with similar features to the south and southeast (MDO40351, MDO40353 and MDO40342). Together these features may form part of the medieval boundary division within an area of medieval open field to the southwest of Wimborne St Giles, defined by a clear curving exterior boundary line visible on the OS 1st Edition map (2). This area of open field may have been subsumed within the later medieval and post medieval formal landscape of St Giles's Park.

The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

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

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one (Map). SDO10239.

Record last edited

Nov 6 2019 1:18PM